94 Mosquitoes 



to young parasites. If this is the case, it will [ex- 

 plain the supposed power of crescents to produce 

 relapses. 



Not everybody who has malaria can have the fun 

 of retaliating on a mosquito. Unless the insect bites 

 after the macro- and microgametes are developed, 

 there would be no infection of the mosquito. Also 

 the patient must have enough gametes in his blood 

 for them to be found in the capillary circulation, 

 where the insect can reach them. Dr. Johnson says 

 that the malaria parasites have their winter quarters 

 in the human body, because the female mosquitoes 

 do not make a meal just before hibernation. But, as 

 Dr. Smith remarks, they may bite during the winter 

 in a warm house. Also, as he further states, there is 

 good evidence that the parasites may remain inert for 

 a long time in a person, manifesting activity when, 

 in some way, the physical force of their host is weak- 

 ened. Thus the gametes lying dormant in the blood 

 of an apparently healthy person who has come to a 

 non-malarial locality may be taken by an Anopheles 

 and start an epidemic. 1 



Malaria may be roughly divided into benign and 

 malignant infections. Many authorities refuse to 

 recognise the existence of more than one species or 

 variety of malaria parasite. We have described five 

 — two of benign and three of malignant infection. 

 That there are others may be confidently postulated, 

 for we have a number of imperfectly classed forms of 

 fever, characterized by clinical symptoms so different 



> The observations in the remainder of the chapter are from Dr. 

 Dupree's notes. 



