288 



The Philippine Journal of Science ms 



is the nematode Filaria bancrofti. Its transmitting agent, 

 Culex* fatigans, is common in Manila and the vicinity and is 

 of wide general distribution. 



There was recently published a newspaper article 2 based on 

 figures compiled by the Bureau of Health and issued on June 

 28, 1918, in which attention was called to five diseases that 

 the Philippine Islands must fight. The statistics showing the 

 deaths from these five diseases during the last decade are here 

 given : 



Smallpox 21,978 



Beriberi 47,052 



Cholera 52,804 



Tuberculosis 192,841 



Malaria 247,675 



These figures furnish an interesting illustration of the psy- 

 chology of the masses. Generally, two or three cases of cholera 

 or smallpox will suffice to reduce the average community to a 

 state of mind bordering on hysterics, and to evoke a prompt 

 and strong reaction on the part of the local health authorities. 



The constant presence of beriberi and tuberculosis brings 

 about another strong reaction in the form of the establishment 

 of societies, organized to supplement the work of the health 

 authorities. This is quite as it should be; but, meanwhile, the 

 effective partnership of Anopheles and Plasmodium shows in 

 ten years a ledger credit in this country of nearly a quarter 

 of a million human lives unostentatiously, but none the less 

 effectively, terminated by malarial fevers and their complica- 

 tions and sequelae. 



Many prominent capitalists and business men of the Philip- 

 pine Islands consider malaria one of the most serious impedi- 

 ments to the commercial and economic development of the 

 country that exists. Notwithstanding all this, no one seems 

 ever to have dreamed of founding an antimalaria society, or 

 of going out on the highways and byways to solicit funds for 

 the suppression of malaria or for the establishment of institu- 

 tions for the treatment of those who have fallen victims to it. 



The distribution of malaria in the Philippine Islands, as shown 

 by the records of the Bureau of Health, is a matter of some 

 interest, especially when compared with two other serious dis- 

 eases — cholera and tuberculosis. I quote from the published 

 records of the Bureau of Health, (24) as to the causes of death 

 during the year 1916. 



2 Manila Daily Bulletin (July 1, 1918), 6. 



