MALARIA AND THE MOSQUITO 393 



that in Africa excess of food is almost if not quite 

 as dangerous as too much drink. A man in a 

 temperate climate who perpetrates the coarse in- 

 discretion of eating too much, usually finds that a 

 dose of medicine removes all fear of subsequent in- 

 convenience. Not so in Africa. It may do so, of 

 course, but biliousness is a condition which literally 

 invites fever, and bilious fever is a form of sick- 

 ness which has created great havoc in European 

 circles. 



In a word, therefore, although Zambezia presents 

 certain dangers common to almost the whole of 

 tropical Africa, the man of careful habits, who is 

 abstemious vdthout abstaining, is far more likely to 

 support the exigencies of the climate than the mis- 

 guided individual who obstinately abstains because 

 he has been told that it is his only chance of 

 safety. 



I suppose one day the true cause of malaria 

 will be found and stamped out. The reason 1 

 italicise the word " cause " is that, so far as I can 

 understand, the origin of the scourge is still hidden 

 from us. We know that the Anopheles mosquito 

 transmits the germ which propagates the fever 

 microbe which feeds upon your red blood-cor- 

 puscles. But he must get that germ from some- 

 where or somebody. Medical science, by teaching 

 us to keep out the mosquito, has done much to 

 enable us to support life in tropical Africa ; but 

 one cannot but feel that the real moment of self- 

 congratulation will have come when we are able to 

 assure ourselves that we can at last place our 

 fingers upon the element whence the Anopheles 



