Febrtjabt 26', 1915] 



SCIENCE 



313 



Dr. C. V. Riley, my former chief and prede- 

 cessor in office, and talked over tlie idea witli 

 Eiley and myself. Shame to the short-sight- 

 edliess of the two of us, that we rather 

 scouted the idea, while giving him the infor- 

 mation on mosquito biology which he after- 

 wards incorporated in paragraph No. 1 of his 

 published brief. 



His argument was fully elaborated and his 

 full paper was prepared early in 1882 and was 

 read before the Philosophical Society of 

 Washington, February 10 of that year, under 

 the title "iThe Prevention of Malarial Disease 

 Illustrating inter alia the Conservative Func- 

 tion of Ague." This meeting of the Philo- 

 sophical Society was attended by forty-two 

 members and visitors, and Dr. King's paper 

 was discussed by Dr. J. S. Billings, Professor 

 Doolittle, Dr. Toner and Dr. Antisell. No 

 record was made of what was said in discus- 

 sion except the following: 



Mr. Billings remarked that since ague did not 

 invariably result from insect bites, the most that 

 could be claimed was that they accomplished an 

 accidental inoculation with malarial poison.2 



This statement is rather ambiguous and 

 does not indicate what Dr. Billings really 

 thought of Dr. King's paper. 



The paper in its full form was never pub- 

 lished, but in The Popular Science Monthly/ 

 for September, 1883, Vol. XXIII., pages 644- 

 658, appears an article entitled " Insects and 

 Disease— Mosquitoes and Malaria," which in 

 a footnote is said to have been an abstract of 

 the Philosophical Society paper. It is upon 

 this published abstract that the scientific 

 world's knowledge of King's views is based. 

 Since the discussion in Riley's office, he had 

 made a careful study of the literature and had 

 found references to several early suggestions 

 as to the possible carriage of disease by in- 

 sects or as to the cause of disease by insect 

 bites. His arguments are displayed in con- 

 nection with nineteen propositions or series 

 of facts with regard to the so-called malarial 



2 Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Wash- 

 ington, Yol. VI. (containing the minutes of the 

 society for the year 1883, etc.), published 1884, 

 page 10. 



poison. These facts were derived from dif- 

 ferent sources, but most of them were quoted 

 from a paper read by Dr. John T. Metcalf, 

 United States Sanitary Commission, 1862. 

 Not all of these nineteen paragraphs are of 

 equal force; and it has become the custom of 

 writers in referring to King's paper to reduce 

 them practically to the following: 



1. The malarial season corresponds to the 

 season of mosquito abundance. 



2. Malarial country is suitable for mosquito 



3. Similar conditions afford protection 

 against malaria and against mosquitoes. 



4. Exposure to night air means exposure 

 to mosquitoes. 



5. Influence of occupation. Soldiers, 

 tramps and fishermen are particularly suscept- 

 ible to malaria and are especially exposed to 

 mosquitoes at night. 



6. Turning up the soil or making excava- 

 tions in previously healthy districts is often 

 followed by m.alaria, but this turning up of 

 the soil gives opportunities for water to ac- 

 cumulate and thus for mosquitoes to breed. 



7. Coincidence of malaria and mosquito 

 abundance — increase of both in late summer 

 and early autumn. 



But this summary gives but a faint idea of 

 the value of The Popular Science Monthly 

 paper. The reasoning throughout is close and 

 convincing, and additional important points 

 are brought out. For example, 



"Malaria has an affinity for dense foliage, 

 which has the power of accumulating it when 

 lying in the course of winds blowing from ma- 

 larious localities," and mosquitoes accumulate in 

 and are obstructed by forests and trees. 



Again, 



"In proportion as countries previously malari- 

 ous are cleared up and thickly settled, periodical 

 fevers disappear." 



Here he points out that in such cases the 

 land is cultivated and its swamps and pools 

 are drained so that mosquito-breeding places 

 are abolished. He further states that as the 

 forests and underbrush disappear before the 

 implements of the agriculturist colonies of 



