Anti-Malarial Measures in Staten Island, by Dr. 

 DOTY, Health Officer of the Port of New 

 York.* 



Dr. DOTY selected a district known by the local practitioners to 

 contain many cases of malaria, both acute and chronic. This section, 

 consisting of a basin less than a square mile in extent, within whose 

 boundaries were some twenty-five stagnant pools varying from five feet 

 in diameter to an acre or more in area, contained not more than a 

 hundred small wooden houses, some distance apart. A house-to- 

 house inspection showed that at least 30 per cent, of the inhabitants 

 were suffering from the acute or chronic form of malarial fever. In 

 almost every house or yard were found typical breeding places for 

 mosquitoes, either in the shape of rain barrels, cisterns, and cesspools, 

 or of abandoned receptacles thrown about the premises. Samples of 

 water from these, as well as all stagnant pools, were examined, and 

 larvae in large quantities were found. Large tubes were distributed 

 among the houses for the purpose of collecting some of the mosquitoes 

 infecting the neighbourhood, and among the latter the Anopheles 

 were found. On two evenings live mosquitoes were secured from one 

 of the bedrooms of a house in which there were five malarial subjects. 

 On the first night five were taken, and all but one were of the Ano- 

 pheles species. On the second night twenty-two were collected, and 

 of these more than one-half were the malarial insect. In a drop of 

 blood taken from a child seven years old suffering from acute malaria, 

 who lived in a house on the opposite corner, a bacteriological exami- 

 nation showed the presence of the malarial parasite. 



The mosquitoes were placed in large glass jars for observation. 

 Many eggs have already been laid, and the laboratory work, when 

 completed, will be published. Many tests have been made to ascer- 

 tain the value of different agents in the destruction of mosquito larvae. 

 A solution of bichloride of mercury (i to 2,000), sufficiently strong to 

 kill all micro-organisms, affected the larvae slowly, some being alive 

 after twenty-four hours. In weaker solutions they lived indefinitely. 

 It would, therefore, be unsafe to use this agent in ponds, etc., and the 

 same might be said of carbolic acid and other agents experimented 



* British Medical Journal, 1901, vol. II., page 645. 



