II 



Malaria and Mosquitoes 



THE principal cause of the present widespread inter- 

 est in the subject of mosquitoes and mosquito- 

 extermination is the perfectly satisfactory proof 

 which has been gained during the i3ast few years that 

 they are resi3onsible for the transmission of the malarial 

 g-erm from malarial patients to healthy people. The 

 causative micro-organism of malaria was discovered by 

 the French army surgeon, Laveran, in Algeria in 1880. 

 From that time to the present, a small army of workers 

 of several different nations have been working upon the 

 life history of the malarial parasites, not only of human 

 beings but of birds, and our present knowledge is quite 

 complete. The idea that mosquitoes might possibly 

 spread malaria had been suggested a number of times. 

 The most forcible argument, however, was presented by 

 Dr. A. F. A. King at Washington, Avitli whom the idea was 

 entirely original, in a paper read before the Philosophical 

 Society in 1882. The actual demonstration, however, was 

 not brought about until much later, and in this actual 

 demonstration workers of several nations had a share. 

 The researches of MacCallum, of Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, while investigating the malarial disease of the com- 



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