iSo MALARIA 



important question : What can be done to diminish 

 malaria ? A few years ago, before we understood the 

 cause of the disease, much had been done to lessen it. 

 While aiming at other objects, we drove malaria out 

 of England by draining. Now that we know the 

 secret of the disease we can direct our efforts more 

 intelligently. There are two points exposed to attack. 

 The first is the sporulating organism in the blood of 

 man, the second is the insect. If we could eliminate 

 the organism from man, the mosquito would be saved 

 much suffering, and would be powerless to infect 

 man ; or, if we could prevent the mosquito from access 

 to man, either by guarding him against its bites or by 

 killing off the insect, the haemotozoon would, in the 

 course of time, gradually die out. 



Both methods should be tried. Malarious patients 

 should, so far as possible, be treated with quinine, and 

 no effort should be spared to free their system from 

 the parasite. Special precautions, such as hanging up 

 mosquito curtains, etc., should be taken to prevent the 

 access of the mosquito to the patient; otherwise he 

 acts as a centre of infection. It is almost equally 

 important to protect the healthy man living in a 

 malarious place. The mosquito net must be carefully 

 made, and let down over the bed well before sunset ; 

 its free edges should be tucked under the mattress, 

 and the greatest care should be taken to prevent the 

 ingress of a mosquito, especially when slipping within 

 the curtains. Punkahs should be employed as much 

 as possible ; they certainly tend to keep the Anopheles 

 at a distance. In the summer of 1 899 an experiment was 

 initiated by Sir Patrick Manson which must convince 

 even those least open to conviction that malaria is 

 preventable if proper precautions be taken. That the 

 bite of an infected mosquito can convey malaria may 

 be taken as proved by the voluntary submission of 

 Mr. T. P. Manson to the experiment, as recounted in 



