SCIENCE USED IN THE DISCOVERY OF MALARIA 15 



inside of their stomachs. These little microscopic bodies 

 were full of black specks. Ross found later that these 

 black specks were only present after a mosquito sucked 

 blood from a person having malaria. By a process of 

 reasoning and experiments, he discovered finally that not 

 only did these mosquitoes carry malaria, but that people 

 could not have malaria unless they were bitten by one of 

 the anopheles mosquitoes, for a malarial parasite has to 

 live a part of its life in the body of the person who has 

 malaria and another 

 part of its life in 

 the body of the mos- 

 quito. 



Then came the 

 testing of this re- 

 markable theory in 

 Italy. A number of 

 people who worked 



in a malarial region, 

 near the city of 

 Salerno, were per- 

 suaded to live in 

 houses which had 

 been carefully 

 screened. It was 

 discovered that the 

 malarial mosquito 

 came out only at 

 night. Practically none of the people who stayed in the 

 house at night behind their screens got malaria, although 

 almost all of the people in the immediate neighborhood 

 were suffering from the disease. 



The final proof that the mosquito carries malaria. 



