18 THE FLORIDA BUGGIST 
THE ANOPHELES MOSQUITO IN RELATION TO MALARIA 
AND AGRICULTURE * 
By C. E. WILSON 
In considering the recent development, as brought to light, in 
the past few years on the role of insects as transmitters of 
disease, I think best to give very briefly a general history of 
this development. 
From all appearances it is natural to suppose that insect 
transmission of disease has come abruptly into prominence; 
this, however, is not the facts, for at no time and in no case 
have great movements or great discoveries been produced sud- 
denly. Centuries ago there was suggested the possibility that 
insects were associated with the cause of disease and through 
these early suggestions we have obtained our present knowledge. 
Perhaps one of the earliest references to this subject is by 
an Italian physician, Mercurioles (1530-1607). This was dur- 
ing the period of the plague or “black death.” In regard to 
its transmission he wrote: ‘‘There can be no doubt that flies 
feed on the internal secretions of the diseased and dying, then, 
flying away, they deposit their excretions on the food of neigh- 
boring dwellings, and persons who eat of it are thus infected.” 
Another of the early writers who deserves consideration is a 
German Jesuit named Kircher (1658.) He discovered bacteria 
long before Leeuwenhoek, and to these attributed the cause of 
disease. 
Passing to almost modern times we find in 1848 that Dr. 
Josiah Nott of Mobile, Ala., published a rather remarkable 
paper on the cause of yellow fever and malaria, yet his work 
has been greatly overrated and his theories of mosquitoes, 
aphids and cotton worms as causative agents were used without 
the significance of modern science. 
In 1853 Beauperthuy, a French physician, discussed the role 
of mosquitoes in transmission of malaria. In regard to Beau- 
perthuy’s work Boyce says: “It is Dr. Beauperthuy whom we 
must regard as the father of the doctrine of insect-borne dis- 
ease.” 
A definite and conclusive mass of argument to support the 
belief of malaria being transmitted by mosquitoes was brought 
about in 1883 by an American physician, A. F. A. King, and 
*Read before the June meeting of the Florida Entomological Society. 
