INSECTS AND HUMAN DISEASE 95 



destroyed, but thrice rebuilt. Or was it due to some cause, 

 entering furtively and gradually sapping away the energies 

 of the race by attacking the rural population, by slaying 

 the new-born infant, by seizing the rising generation, and 

 especially by killing out the fair-haired descendants of the 

 original settlers, leaving behind chiefly the more immunised 

 and darker children of their captives won by the sword 

 from Asia and Africa ? . . . Causes such as malaria, 

 dysentery, and intestinal entozoa must have modified history 

 to a much greater extent than we conceive. Our historians 

 and economists do not seern even to have considered the 

 matter. It is true they speak of epidemic disease, but the 

 endemic diseases are really those of greatest importance. . . . 

 The whole life of Greece must suffer from the weight which 

 crushes its rural energies. When the children suffer so 

 much, how can the country create the fresh blood which 

 keeps a nation young ? " 



Not health alone, but man's very pockets are affected by 

 this overmastering incubus. The mosquito plague has been 

 responsible for arresting the development of the whole 

 state of New Jersey : real estate has fallen in value, on 

 account of the depredations of these insects ; milch cows 

 have been so worried by their attentions that their milk 

 yield has been seriously impaired ; horses at work in the 

 field have to be covered with sheets, lest the attacks of 

 innumerable gnats should drive them to distraction; in 

 fact, without wishing to be facetious, it may be said that 

 they anticipated the grandmotherly efforts of the American 

 Government in attempting to put a stop to horse racing 

 by making a whole-hearted attack on the race-horses at 

 the Newmarket of America Sheepshead Bay, resulting in 

 so impairing the condition of the valuable animals trained 

 there, that thousands of dollars were spent in efforts to 

 abate the pest. 



Malaria is a country, rather than a town disease. It 

 was once supposed to be caused by dwelling in damp and 



