NOTES ON A MALAllIA-CARRYJNd M(iSgUIT(). 



( A N( ) PHEL ES PI CT US. ) 



(Plates I.— IV.) 



By W. R. COL.LEDGE. 



[Read before the Royal Sorieti/ of Que(n.'<Iand, 22nd Septeitdjer, 



1900.] 



I HAVE the pleasure of presenting to you a few notes and 

 illustrations of the particular kind of mosquito which propagates 

 malarial disease. It is only within the last few years that it 

 has been suspected of fulfilling this function. But an elaborate 

 series of experiments have been conducted in various places, 

 and the suspicion has deepened now into a scientific fact. Pure 

 bred mosquitoes have been allowed to bite patients suffering 

 from malarial fever. Some of these insects have been dissected, 

 and the malarial germs seen in the stomach, salivary glands, 

 and proboscis. Some of the same batch of insects have bitten 

 healthy persons and inoculated them with the fever. The chain 

 of evidence is therefore so complete that the English experts do 

 not require any more experiments on human beings. The 

 evidence accumulated is considered amply suflficient to establish 

 the fact. As probably ten millions of people die annually from 

 this disease, and three or four times that number are disabled 

 from pursuing active occupations for considerable periods, this 

 discovery is fraught with deep interest to the inhabitants of the 

 tropical world. Various experiments made in India, Africa, and 

 Italy with the common mosquito, gave negative results, so that 

 the ordinary kind is not thought to convey the decease. But a 

 particular kind called the Anopheles is the one concerned. They 



