FIRST ANTIMALAllIAL CAMPAIGNS 63 



taken by Ross when in India, and subsequently in 

 Sierra Leone. He organised mosquito brigades to do 

 away with the breeding phices of the anophehnes, to 

 drain the hind, or oil the pools, — not every patch of 

 water, however. The rivers and the lakes and large 

 collections of water were for the most part free from 

 larvee ; these latter were to be found in the small 

 collections of water, — pools by the roadway, pockets 

 of water in unnoticed and waste places, ditches, 

 margins of marshes, etc. 



ANTIMALARIAL CAMPAIGNS IN EUROPE 

 THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST MALARIA IN ITALY 



In Italy malaria is a disease of the entire population 

 where the conditions exist for the propagation of the 

 malaria-carriers — the anophelines. In addition to the 

 agricultural population, the great sufferers are railway 

 employees stationed in marshy districts, and in mili- 

 tary outposts placed under similar conditions. 



In 1905 Grassi proved the efficacy of mechanical 

 protection against the anopheles in one of the most 

 malarial areas near Salerno. 



In a letter written in ^larch 1909 to The Times, 

 Professor Osier, in testifying to the value of the work 

 of the Italian Society for the Study of JNIalaria in 

 suppressing that fever, mentions how in 1887 malaria 

 ranked with tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the intestinal 

 disorders of children as one of the great infections, 

 killing in that year 21,033 persons. In 1902 an 

 organised campaign was started, the measures adopted 



