94 INSECTS AND MAN 



delivered to the Oxford Medical Society on 29th November 

 1906. In the course of this address he said : " Now what 

 must be the effect of this ubiquitous and everlasting 

 incubus of disease on the people of modern Greece ? 

 Remember that the malady (malaria) is essentially one of 

 infancy among the native population. Infecting the child 

 one or two years after birth, it persecutes him till puberty 

 with a long succession of attacks, accompanied by much 

 anaemia. Imagine the effect it would produce on our own 

 children here in Britain. It is true that our children 

 suffer from many complaints scarlatina, measles, whooping 

 cough, but these are of brief duration and transient. But 

 now add to these, in imagination, a malady which lasts for 

 years and may sometimes attack every child in a village. 

 What would be the effect on our population upon their 

 numbers and upon the health and vigour of the survivors. 

 It must be enormous in Greece. . . . We now come face to 

 face with that profoundly interesting subject, the political, 

 economical, and historical significance of this great disease. 

 We know that malaria must have existed in Greece ever 

 since the time of Hippocrates, about 400 B.C. What effect 

 has it had on the life of this country ? In prehistoric 

 times Greece was certainly peopled by successive waves of 

 Aryan invaders from the north, probably a fair-haired 

 people who made it what it became, who conquered Persia 

 and Egypt, and who created the sciences, arts, and phil- 

 osophies which we are only developing further to-day. 

 That race reached the climax of its development at the 

 time of Pericles. Those great and beautiful valleys 

 were thickly peopled with a civilisation which in some 

 ways has not been excelled. . . . Lake Kopais, now almost 

 deserted, was surrounded by towns whose massive work 

 remains to this day. Suddenly, however, a blight fell over- 

 all. Was it due to internecine conflict or to foreign con- 

 quest? Scarcely; for history shows that war burns and 

 ravages, but does not annihilate. Thebes was thrice 



