HAPPY INDIA 123 



is not possible for anybody to say all at once how 

 to abolish these " fevers." The problem has been 

 studied by many. There are medical men in India 

 appointed by the Government specially to study 

 the problem, who have devoted their lives to the 

 consideration of it. No doubt many engineers 

 living in India have considered it also, and so have 

 ordinary citizens, both English and Indian. 



In dealing with malaria one has to take special 

 note of the discoveries of Dr. Ross, now Sir Ronald 

 Ross. In 1892 he was in India and made a special 

 study of the malaria question, and in 1898 he had 

 discovered that a certain kind of mosquito would 

 carry malaria from a person who was ill with malaria 

 to another person, and infect this second person with 

 the ailment. This was an epoch-making discovery, 

 and it has led to the reduction of malaria in some 

 parts of the world. For instance, the celebrated 

 engineer, Lesseps, tried to make the Panama Canal, 

 but the malaria was too strong for him. The 

 superintending engineers could not live on the spot, 

 and only occasionally visited the place. Workmen 

 engaged died very rapidly, so that slow progress 

 only was made. The work had to be given up, and 

 the French engineer and the shareholders who sub- 

 scribed their money were beaten by the malarial 

 mosquito. When the Americans took in hand the 

 construction of this canal, the director of their 

 operations, working on the knowledge obtained by 

 Sir Ronald Ross, succeeded in clearing the district 

 of mosquitoes, at any rate of that kind which carries 



