40 THE FEVER CENSUS 



1910 the same Department objected to subscribing 

 300 towards the anti-mosquito campaign at Port 

 Said which had had excellent results, and which had 

 been the means of reducing the general death-rate in 

 this formerly insanitary and unhealthy town. The 

 reason given was that the Egyptian Government 

 could not afford to fight endemic disease, but must 

 expend all its energies on epidemics. They had 

 already expended energy to the amount of nearly 

 249,000, and the result was nil ; but they refused 

 300 towards the upkeep of a result that is well 

 known and obvious. These facts are mentioned here 

 because they serve to show that the fight against 

 diseases that are slow but sure in their action is not 

 always encouraged by those whose duty it is to 

 wage the war. The reason is that there is less 

 credit to be obtained by fighting chronic and slowly 

 killing fevers than by dramatically " preventing " an 

 epidemic of which there was never much danger. 



But it is not always easy to gauge the exact 

 amount of fever that exists in a town ; nor the exact 

 nature of that fever. Even the local health officer 

 may find it difficult to discover how many cases of 

 malaria occurred during any one year, how many 

 persons had typhoid, how many dengue, what was 

 the incidence of simple continued fever, or of the 

 recently discovered three-day fever. How is he to 

 distinguish between them all ? 



In the present state of our knowledge one cannot 

 be certain of doing this. It is only possible to com- 

 pare one year with another hence the importance 



