Medicine Looks Ahead 247 



to produce a good substitute, atabrin, because of work done 

 by Japan's ally, Germany. Atabrine was developed in the 

 1920*8 by I.G. Farbenindustrie. If administered in heavy doses 

 under medical supervision, atabrin will cure or check malaria. 

 Another chemical agent, plasmochin, kills the gametacytes, 

 the reproductive form of the malaria parasite. When the 

 anopheline mosquito bites a person infected with malaria it 

 sucks up the gametacytes, and then it spreads these deadly 

 parasites to all whom it bites. 



"Health Bomb" for Mosquitoes 



This is why it is important to drain and spray swamps. If 

 the mosquitoes are destroyed they cannot carry the gameta- 

 cytes from an infected person to a new victim. Naval officers 

 point out, however, that it is difficult for shock troops land- 

 ing under fire to fight malaria and the enemy simultaneously. 

 "You can't stop to dig ditches and put up screens while the 

 enemy bullets are whistling over your head on the beach," 

 they add. When troops go into action in malarial country 

 they are protected with new types of insect repellent which 

 will keep mosquitoes away for several hours. The Army also 

 has developed a "health bomb" containing what is said to be 

 the most powerful insecticide yet developed. It is made from 

 sesame oil, freon, and pyrethrum, and is packed in six-inch 

 metal pressure containers. 



With this device, soldiers can destroy every deadly insect 

 in barracks and dugouts in an amazingly short time. Cargo 

 and transport planes returning to America from malaria- 

 infested areas can be rid of disease-laden insects in flight long 

 before there is any danger of bringing these dangerous stow- 

 aways into the United States. The Army hopes these "bombs" 

 will reduce the casualty rate of past wars, in which disease has 



