296 The Philippine Journal of Science 1918 



and quotidians, giving rise to the daily attacks of ague; double 

 quartans, mixed tertians and quartans, postponing and anticipat- 

 ing attacks; and the rest of the more or less bewildering series 

 of clinical manifestations to which malaria may give rise, all of 

 which are familiar to practitioners in the tropics. While the 

 experienced man grows to regard with suspicion all pyrexial 

 attacks, and to look for the unexpected picture in malaria, still, 

 it is the part of wisdom to suspend judgment on any atypical 

 case suspected to be malaria until the microscope confirms that 

 suspicion. However, this phase of malaria will not be discussed 

 in the present paper. 



Secondly, there is the matter of relapses, which has a very 

 vital bearing on the prevention of malaria among troops. It 

 is impracticable to discuss the theoretical considerations of mala- 

 rial relapses, for this would involve a discussion of the cytology 

 and physiology of the organism. 



Lastly, there is the problem presented by the carriers ; that is 

 to say, persons who are parasitized with Plasmodium, but show 

 no apparent symptoms of the disease. These constitute the most 

 dangerous group, and the group to which I shall devote the most 

 attention. 



The detection of infected, but apparently healthy, recruits and 

 their separation from the healthy and uninfected recruits are 

 matters that will severely tax the knowledge, skill, and resources 

 of any army medical corps; yet this work must be thoroughly 

 done, if the uninfected recruits and the neighboring troops at 

 the front are to be protected against the menace of the carriers. 



Once detected, there still remains the task of sterilizing the 

 malarial carrier, and this may prove in some cases a task of 

 almost equal difficulty. 



It is not my purpose to outline here a course of procedure 

 that might be followed by army medical authorities, for that 

 is a matter that naturally lies wholly within their province and 

 responsibility. I merely wish to set forth a few of the points 

 of attack of which a protozoologist might avail himself. These 

 would be entirely aside from clinical data, such as pyrexia, 

 splenic enlargement, and so forth. Under the heading of labor- 

 atory procedure we would have to consider: 



1. FRESH AND STAINED BLOOD FILMS 



The ordinary blood films are not to be relied upon for the 

 detection of carriers. A long search may or may not reveal 

 gametocytes or an occasional trophozoite, suspicious pigmenta- 

 tion of leucocytes or mononucleosis. To state it plainly, the 



