132 MALARIA 



prominent malarial districts : the valley of the Loire 

 and its tributary the Indre, and the valley of the 

 Rhone ; also the sea-coast stretching from the mouth 

 of the Loire to the Pyrenees, and again the Medi- 

 terranean sea-board. It occurs in Switzerland, and 

 is found in Germany along the Baltic coasts, and on 

 the banks of the Rhine, the Elbe, and other rivers, 

 and in many other parts. Scarcely a province in 

 Holland is quite free from it, and it is found in 

 Belgium and around Lake Wener, in Sweden. It 

 extends along the Lower Danube and around the 

 Black Sea, and spreads across Russia, being especially 

 prevalent along the course of the Volga and around 

 the Caspian. From Europe it spreads over Asia 

 Minor, and affects all Southern Asia as far as the 

 East Indies, but in Japan it is curiously rare. It is 

 also infrequent in Australia — where it is confined to 

 the northern half of the continent — and in many of the 

 Pacific Islands; and it is unknown in the Sand- 

 wich Islands, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Samoa. 

 In America it is more common, and of a more severe 

 type on the Atlantic sea-board than on the Pacific ; 

 in the last hundred years its northern limit is said to 

 have retreated in the centre of the continent, though 

 some observers think it is creeping further north in 

 the Eastern States. In a mild form it is known 

 around the Great Lakes, and in Canada and in New 

 England ; but it reaches a high degree of intensity in 

 the Southern States, Mexico, Cuba, and Central 

 America, where it probably played a greater part in 

 ruining the projected Panama Canal than all the 

 corrupt financing of the speculators in Paris. It 

 extends throughout the warmer parts of South 

 America, and is known in a virulent form all over 

 Africa except the extreme south. 



In Great Britain it used to flourish. The following 

 extract from Graham's ' Social Life of Scotland in the 



