748 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



history of India, Italy, and Africa which 

 could be brought forward in support of 

 this hypothesis. 



"We now come face to face with that 

 profoundly interesting subject, the poli- 

 tical, economical, and historical signifi- 

 ■cance of this great disease. We know 

 that malaria must have existed in Greece 

 ever since the time of Hippocrates, about 

 400 B. C. What effect has it had on the 

 life of the country? . In prehistoric times 

 Greece was certainly peopled by succes- 

 sive waves of Aryan invaders from the 

 north — probably a fair-haired people — 

 who made it what it became, who con- 

 quered Persia and Egypt, and who 

 created the sciences, arts, and philoso- 

 phies which we are only developing fur- 

 ther today. That race reached its climax 

 of development at the time of Pericles. 

 Those great and beautiful valleys were 

 thickly peopled by a civilization which 

 in some ways has not been excelled. 

 Everywhere there were cities, temples, 

 oracles, arts, philosophies, and a popula- 

 tion vigorous and well trained in arms. 

 Lake Kopais, now almost deserted, was 

 surrounded by towns whose massive 

 works remain to this day. 



"Suddenly, however, a blight fell over 

 all. Was it due to internecine conflict or 

 to foreign conquest ? Scarcely ; for his- 

 tory shows that war burns and ravages, 

 but does no annihilate. Thebes was 

 thrice destroyed, but thrice rebuilt. Or 

 was it due to some cause, entering fur- 

 tively and gradually sapping away the 

 energies of the race by attacking the 

 rural population, by slaying the new-born 

 infant, by seizing the rising generation, 

 and especially by killing out the fair- 

 haired descendant of the original settlers, 

 leaving behind chiefly the more im- 

 munised and darker children of their cap- 

 tives, won by the sword from Asia and 

 Africa? * * * 



"I cannot imagine Lake Kopais, in its 

 present highly malarious condition, to 

 have been thickly peopled by a vigorous 

 race ; nor, on looking at those wonderful 

 figured tombstones at Athens, can I im- 

 agine that the healthy and powerful peo- 

 ple represented upon them could have 



ever passed through the anaemic and 

 splenomegalous infancy (to coin a word) 

 caused by widespread malaria. Well, I 

 venture only to suggest the hypothesis, 

 and must leave it to scholars for con- 

 firmation or rejection. Of one thing I 

 am confident, that causes such as malaria, 

 dysentery, and intestinal entozoa must 

 have modified history to a much greater 

 extent than we conceive. Our histo- 

 rians and economists do not seem even to 

 have considered the matter. It is true 

 that they speak of epidemic diseases, but 

 the endemic diseases are really those of 

 the greatest importance. * * * 



"The whole life of Greece must suffer 

 from this weight, which crushes its rural 

 energies. Where the children suffer so 

 much, how can the country create that 

 fresh blood which keeps a nation young? 

 But for a hamlet here and there, those 

 famous valleys are deserted. I saw from 

 a spur of Helikon the sun setting upon 

 Parnassus, Apollo sinking, as he was 

 wont to do, towards his own fane at 

 Delphi and pouring a flood of light over 

 the great Kopaik Plain. But it seemed 

 that he was the only inhabitant of it. 

 There was nothing there. 'Who,' said a 

 rich Greek to me, 'would think of going 

 to live in such a place as that?" I doubt 

 much whether it is the Turk who has 

 done all this. I think it is very largely 

 the malaria.'' 



In considering carefully this suggestive 

 argument of Major Ross, does it not ap- 

 pear to indicate the tremendous influence 

 that the prevalence of endemic disease 

 must exert upon the progress of modern 

 nations, and does it not bring the thought 

 that those nations that are most advanced 

 in sanitary science and preventive medi- 

 cine will, other things being equal, as- 

 sume the lead in the world's work? 



Who can estimate the influence of the 

 sanitary laws of the Hebrew Scriptures 

 upon the extraordinary persistence of 

 that race through centuries of European 

 oppression — centuries full of plague 

 years and of terrible mortality from pre- 

 ventable disease? 



And what more striking example can 

 be advanced of the effect of an en- 



