104 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



American war, which read '*At least 75 per cent of the command has 

 been down with malarial fever, from which they recover very slowly 

 * * *.'^ It should be noted that Major Seaman was disappointed 

 not to find mosquito nettings in the main hospital in Tokio and that 

 he states that this hospital was inferior in this and certain other 

 respects to the second and third reserve hospitals in Manila. He 

 states that at some of the hospitals netting was added as the mosquito 

 season approched, but it is only fair to infer that at this main hospital 

 the Japanese surgeons knew what they were about and were certain 

 that the absence of the mosquito bars involved no danger to the 

 patients. 



ANTIMOSQUITO WORK IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. 



Nothing has been said in this bulletin about the admirable work 

 which had been carried on in Italy. Taking a prominent part in the 

 demonstration of the conveyance of malaria by Anopheles, the 

 Italian investigators were practically the first to begin active anti- 

 mosquito work. Their results were so striking that they received 

 the attention of the entire civilized world, many accounts having 

 been published in newspapers and magazines and in more permanent 

 form. The whole world may, in fact, be said to be familiar with this 

 work, which will be, however, more extensively mentioned in a 

 bulletin on malaria and the malaria mosquitoes which it is hoped to 

 publish later in the year. 



Active and well-organized antimalarial work is being carried on 

 in many places in the Tropics, and an effort has been made to estab- 

 lish an antimalarial league in Greece which has the support of wealthy 

 people and of the nobility of several countries, but in practically 

 none of the well-settled countries in temperate regions has any work 

 of importance been done, even in regions whose development is dis- 

 tinctly held in check by this disease. The government of India has 

 never been able to carry out broad concerted measures of any great 

 importance, although most important investigations have been car- 

 ried on in that country. It was recently decided to convene a con- 

 ference to examine the whole question and to draw up a plan of cam- 

 paign for the consideration of the general government and of the local 

 governments. This conference assembled at Simla on October 11, 

 1909. In the resolution which brought about the call it is pointed out 

 that the actual death rate from malarial fever in India is 5 per 1,000; 

 that this represents about 1,130,000 deaths, and, as mortality in 

 malarial fever is ordinarily low, a death rate of even 5 per 1,000 indi- 

 cates an amount of sickness, much of it preventable, which clearly 

 calls for the best efforts that government can make to diminish it. 

 An editorial in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for 



