130 FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 



the eradication of malaria would be a benefit to all the countries where it 

 exists needs neither elaborate statement nor comment. The difficulty 

 in this, as in most cases, is to devise "a well-considered plan" for the 

 eradication of the evil. 



The Congress did not attempt to do so, but contented itself with advo- 

 cating the inauguration of a well-considered plan, when found, because, 

 in the opinion of the Congress, the disease can be prevented to a much 

 greater degree than has hitherto been the case, and that, as a prerequisite 

 to any plan and to its application, the public should be educated in the 

 elementary facts concerning the matter. 



It was pointed out in the discussions of the Section that in semi-tropical 

 and tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere the supreme importance 

 of malaria as a problem of public health was recognized by all govern- 

 mental, medical, and sanitary authorities. 



It was stated by competent authorities that the economic loss due to the 

 prevalence of malaria could be overcome by diminishing the mortality, 

 that the loss occasioned by mortality due to malarial fever is one of 

 the most serious evils affecting the health and happiness of the people, 

 and that the problem in all its aspects has not yet received the 

 amount of public interest and scientific investigation commensurate .with 

 its world-wide importance. The recommendation which was made by the 

 Section and approved by the Congress is calculated to call the attention 

 of governments to the problem and to the fact that it is preventable and 

 will, it is to be hoped, cause all American countries where malaria exists to 

 inaugurate the well-considered plan, when devised, for its eradication and 

 control, based upon the recognition of the fact that the disease is in reality 

 much more preventable than hitherto. 



ARTICLE 40. The Second Pan American Scientific Congress urges that 

 The American Republics in which yellow fever prevails or is sus- 

 pected of prevailing enact such laws for its eradication as will 

 best accomplish that result; 



Inasmuch as yellow fever exists in some of the European colonies 

 in America, they be invited to adopt measures for its elimina- 

 tion. 



It is common knowledge and indeed common experience that yellow 

 fever has been a plague to the American countries, and it is a matter of 

 congratulation that the patient and 'sacrificing devotion of scientists has 

 discovered the cause and has applied the remedy, whereby our continent 

 may be freed from this great scourge. Notwithstanding the possibility 

 of its eradication, it nevertheless prevails in certain American countries 

 and in certain of the European colonies of America. 



