110 ELEMENTS OF GENERAL SCIENCE 



through the surface of the water small tubes by means of 

 which a fresh supply of air is gained. The adult female 

 mosquito may secure its food by biting through the skin and 

 sucking the blood from man or other higher animals. 



126. How the mosquito carries malaria. When a mosquito 

 of a certain kind (Anopheles, fig. 56) feeds upon human blood, 

 it injects a small amount of salivary fluid into the wound 



FIG. 56. The malarial mosquito (Anopheles) 

 Male at left ; female at right. After Howard 



that it has made. If the person has malaria, the mosquito 

 secures blood which may carry malarial germs ; and if these 

 germs are present they multiply rapidly within the mosquito, 

 really living in a way quite different from their life in the 

 human blood. Some of the germs get into the mosquito's 

 salivary glands. When the infected mosquito bites a second 

 human being, germs may be injected into the wound with 

 the salivary fluid. These may produce the disease in the 

 person thus infected who has not previously had it. 



