ECONOMIC LOSS THROUGH INSECTS 



747 



and many other diseases is regarded as of 

 strictly local interest." 



But this criticism is not entirely jus- 

 tified, since there was published by the 

 Bureau of Entomology of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, in 

 1900, a Farmers' Bulletin, entitled "How 

 Insects Affect Health in Rural Dis- 

 tricts,"* in which all of these points men- 

 tioned by the editor of the Journal of the 

 American Medical Association have been 

 touched upon, and at the date of present 

 writing 192,000 copies of this bulletin 

 have been distributed among the people. 

 Moreover, a number of years ago a cir- 

 cular! was published on the subject of 

 the house fly, calling attention to its 

 dangers and giving instructions such as 

 are covered in a general way in this arti- 

 cle, and some 18,000 copies of this cir- 

 cular have also been distributed. This is 

 an indication that the general govern- 

 ment is by no means blind to the people's 

 needs in such matters as we have under 

 consideration, but further work should" 

 be done. That the English government 

 is awaking to the same need is shown by 

 the fact that, in the parliamentary vote 

 of the present year in aid of scientific in- 

 vestigations concerning disease, one of 

 the projects supported by the general 

 government was the investigation of 

 Doctors Copeman and Nuttall on flies as 

 carriers of disease. 



A leading editorial in an afternoon 

 paper of the city of Washington, of 

 October 20, 1908, bears the heading, 

 "Typhoid a National Scourge," arguing 

 that it is today as great a scourge as tu- 

 berculosis. The editorial writer migjht 

 equally well have used the heading "Ty- 

 phoid a National Reproach," or perhaps 

 even "Typhoid a National Crime," since 

 it is an absolutely preventable disease. 

 And as for the typhoid fly, that a crea- 

 ture born in indescribable filth and abso- 

 lutely swarming with disease germs 

 should practically be invited to multiply 

 unchecked, even in great centers of popu- 



* Farmers' Bulletin No. 155. 



f Circular No. 35, Bureau of Entomology, 

 1891, afterwards reissued in revised form as 

 Circular No. 71. 



lation, is surely nothing less than crim- 

 inal. 



ENDEMIC DISEASE AS AFFECTING THE 

 PROGRESS OF NATIONS 



In referring to the spread of malaria in 

 Greece, the relation of this disease to the 

 rise and fall of national power has been 

 touched upon in an earlier paragraph. 

 The subject is one of the widest impor- 

 tance and deserves a more extended con- 

 sideration. 



The following paragraphs are quoted 

 from Ronald Ross's address on Malaria 

 in Greece, delivered before the Oxford 

 Medical Society, November 29, 1906: 



"Now, what must be the effect of this 

 ubiquitous and everlasting incubus of 

 disease on the people of modern Greece? 

 Remember that the malady is essentially 

 one of infancy among the native popula- 

 tion. Infecting the child one or two 

 years after birth, it persecutes him until 

 puberty with a long succession of febrile 

 attacks, accompanied by much spleno- 

 megaly and anaemia. Imagine the effect 

 it would produce upon our own children 

 here in Britain. It is true that our chil- 

 dren suffer from many complaints — scar- 

 latina, measles, whooping cough — but 

 these are of brief duration and transient. 

 But now add to these, in imagination, a 

 malady which lasts for years, and may 

 sometimes attack every child in a village. 

 What would be the effect upon our popu- 

 lation — especially our rural population — 

 upon their numbers and upon the health 

 and vigor of the survivors? It must be 

 enormous in Greece. 



"People often seem to think that such 

 a plague strengthens a race by killing off 

 the weaker individuals; but this view 

 rests upon the unproven assumption that 

 it is really the weaker children which 

 cannot survive. On the contrary, exper- 

 ience seems to show that it is the stronger 

 blood which suffers most — the fair, 

 northern blood which nature attempts 

 constantly to pour into the southern 

 lands. If this be true, the effect of ma- 

 laria will be constantly to resist the in- 

 vigorating influx which nature has pro- 

 vided ; and there are many facts in the 



