Januaey 5, 1900.] 



SCIENCE 



37 



people (who had not the same reason to dread 

 the malaria), and in the very lowest, dampest 

 and hottest part of the town. The Govern- 

 ments and the great commercial houses who 

 sent employes to the tropics and paid their ex- 

 penses — especially their funeral expenses, which 

 were considerably larger than the mere cost of 

 the hearse — should have something to say on 

 the matter. The nation had not paid sufficient 

 attention to the shocking mortality in its trop- 

 ical possessions. They shuddered to hear of 

 a few guinea-pigs being inoculated with disease 

 in the laboratory, but looked on with indiffer- 

 ence at the infection by natural means of thous- 

 ands of their countrymen and of millions of our 

 colored subjects in the tropics. They spent 

 floods of money in the tropics on what was 

 called sanitation and maintaining costly med- 

 ical service, but such expenditure was more or 

 less perfunctory ; it was part of the Budgets, 

 and it was allocated without much intelligence, 

 and he feared, largely wasted. Fifty years ago 

 a new parasite called the ankylostoma duade- 

 nale was discovered. It was now known, 

 chiefly as the result of investigation by private 

 persons, to cause an immense amount of sick- 

 ness and mortality among our colored sub- 

 jects. Although the presence of the parasite 

 could easily be detected by the microscope, its 

 name hardly fovmd a place in our statistics of 

 disease. A few years ago Giles studied the mode 

 in which it gained an entry into our bodies. 

 Since then no one had repeated his observations 

 or taken the slightest interest in them. It had 

 not been thought worth while to check the rav- 

 ages of that disease. Again, some years ago a 

 parasite was found which might perhaps cause 

 that terrible and widespread disease, dysentery. 

 No attempt had been made by Englishmen to 

 clear up that important point ; and the life-his- 

 tory of the parasite which was studied years 

 ago by Cunningham seemed to have been com- 

 pletely forgotten. Twenty years ago Manson 

 ascertained that the parasite which caused ele- 

 phantiasis was carried by the mosquito. Until 

 last year not a single person had made any 

 adequate attempt to verify his work — much 

 less to act upon it for the prevention of the 

 disease. In India alone the mortality ascribed 

 to fever was five million persons annually. 



Besides the mortality vast tracts of fertile 

 possessions were rendered uninhabitable by this 

 disease. Twenty years ago the parasite which 

 caused the disease was found, but not a micro- 

 scope or pen was used by Englishmen for seven 

 years. During those seven years 35 million 

 persons died from fever in India alone. Then 

 a single Englishman, Vandyke Carter, took up 

 Laveran's discovery. He was now dead. For 

 that and other noble work he received no re- 

 ward. Not another Englishman moved in the 

 matter for another seven years, lazy, indif- 

 ferent, and imbecile scepticism holding the 

 ground. Then a few young countrymen of 

 ours commenced to study the subject, years 

 after other great nations had been attacking it 

 with vigor, and now they did find medical 

 men and others who paid some attention to 

 it in the British dominions. Now there was 

 an awakening everywhere. The Royal So- 

 ciety itself, assisted by Mr. Chamberlain and 

 the Colonial Office, had taken up the mat- 

 ter with energy. The tropical schools of Lon- 

 don and Liverpool had been founded by lead- 

 ing citizens, and scientific missions were being 

 sent to different parts of the world. He had 

 spoken that day in the hope of increasing sym- 

 pathy in the great cause. A thousandth part 

 of the energy now spent on numberless philan- 

 thropic schemes in Great Britain was likely at 

 that moment to produce a thousand times as 

 much fruit if properly expended in the cause 

 of imperial sanitation. They had much reason 

 to hope that in a year or two they would not 

 only have a complete knowledge of how ma- 

 laria was produced, but would foresee a cheap 

 and practical mode of prevention. 



NAVY REPORT ON WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 

 The U. S. Navy Board has reported on the 

 Marconi system of wireless telegraphy as fol- 

 lows : It is well adapted for use in squadron 

 signaling under conditions of rain, fog, dark- 

 ness and motion of speed. Wind, rain, fog, 

 and other conditions of weather do not affect 

 the transmission through space, but dampness 

 may reduce the range, rapidity and accuracy 

 by impairing the insulation of the aerial wire 

 and the instruments. Darkness has no effect. 



