290 



The Philippine Journal of Science 



1918 



Two entire provinces — Leyte and Sorsogon — are unreported; 

 and other questions, such as the accuracy of diagnosis in all 

 cases and the difficulty of securing correct reports from the wild 

 tribes and the sparsely settled and inaccessible districts in the 

 country, are apparently not considered. So that, if a precise 

 study of the incidence and distribution of malaria in the Philip- 

 pine Islands were to be made, the statistics given above would 

 have to be carefully analyzed. In the main, however, the fig- 

 ures probably give a fair idea of the proportion malaria bears 

 to the other two most dreaded diseases, and of its relative extent 

 and distribution throughout the Islands. 



The death rate from malaria, as evidenced by these statistics, 

 is startling enough; but there is another factor which has a 

 direct bearing upon the effects of malaria on the population 

 of a country, which seems to be totally neglected although, on 

 reflection, it must appeal to every physician practicing in the 

 tropics. That factor is furnished by death of the foetus in 

 utero as a result of a supervening attack of malaria suffered 

 by the mother. Cases in which the pregnant woman aborts 

 during an attack of malaria are all too familiar; under treat- 

 ment she may survive, but her child is lost. I can give no 

 figures as to the extent of this; however, I can cite some inter- 

 esting data collected by the sanitary authorities of Burma (3) 

 based on the child population of all the districts in that province. 



The province was very thoroughly canvassed and a large 

 number of persons examined. The table gives comparative fig- 

 ures of the child population, under 10 years of age, per hundred 

 married females of child-bearing age (15 to 40 years). It is 

 probably a reliable statement of the relative proportional dis- 

 tribution of the child population and of the relative productive 

 capacity of the female population in the different districts. In- 

 spection of the figures will show that the child population is 

 materially reduced in malarious districts as contrasted with those 

 that are nonmalarious. The table follows: 



Table II. — Child population of Burma. 



Malarious Districts. 



Kyaukee ... 

 Mandalay .. 

 Thayetmye 



Prome 



Yamethin . 

 Ma-ubin ... 

 Schwebo... 





Children. 





186 

 188 

 198 

 198 

 208 

 210 

 218 

















Relatively nonmalarious districts. 



Magwe 



Sagaing 



Meiktila 



Myingyan 



Lower Chindwin 

 Pakokku 



Children. 



245 

 244 

 244 

 240 

 236 

 223 



