38 THE FLORIDA BUGGIST 
Theobald (1901) in his Monograph reports forty-two species of 
Anopheles from the world. There are eleven species found in 
the canal zone, at least five of which carry malaria (Darling, 
1910). But we, in the United States, have only three that ordi- 
narily carry malaria. These are Anopheles punctipennis Say., 
Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say., and Anopheles crucians Wied. 
(Howard, 1911), the last two being found in Florida. 
While the etiology of malaria is well understood, few people 
realize the importance of it. They take it as a matter of provi- 
dence that every one in the South should have it and that it does 
not amount to much. Indeed, it is very difficult to estimate the 
damage it does. But Herrick (1903) says that malaria is re- 
sponsible for more sickness among the white population of the 
South than any other disease. Howard (1907) points out that 
from the meager data available, the death rate from malaria in 
the United States amounts to fifteen per hundred thousand, or 
twelve hundred per year, and that two-thirds of this is in the 
South. Although there are no records available for this state, 
Florida, with its semitropical climate, summer rains and large 
areas of flat lands, undoubtedly has its share. But the death rate 
alone does not begin to show the importance of the disease. 
Howard (1909) says: 
“But with malaria perhaps as with no other disease, does the death rate 
fail to indicate the real loss from the economic point of view. A man may 
suffer from malaria throughout the greater part of his life, and his pro- 
ductive capacity may be reduced from fifty to seventy-five per cent, and yet 
ultimately he may die from some entirely different immediate cause. In 
fact, the predisposition to death from other causes brought about by malaria 
is so marked that if, in the collection of vital statistics, it were possible to 
ascribe the real influence upon mortality that malaria possesses, this disease 
would have a very high rank in mortality tables. Writing of tropical condi- 
tions, Sir Patrick Manson decided that malaria causes more deaths, and more 
predisposition to death by producing cachetic states predisposing to other 
affections, than all the other parasites affecting mankind together. How- 
ever, it has been shown that the average life of the worker in malaria places 
is shorter and that infant mortality is higher than in healthy places.” 
Malaria is undoubtedly the most prevalent disease among the 
students. The records of the University Infirmary show that 
for the present scholastic year (up to May 5, 1913) there were 
a total of seventy-two cases treated in the infirmary, thirty-one 
of which were for malaria. This is in spite of the fact that there 
is, among the students, a strong aversion to going to the infirm- 
ary and that only the more serious cases were recorded. The 
records show that the time spent in the infirmary for treatment 
varies from one to ten days, with an average of three and one- 
tenth, or a total for the year of ninety-six. But, as pointed out 
