MALARIA IN GREECE 327 
it is the stronger blood which suffers most—the fair, northern blood which nature 
attempts constantly to pour into the southern lands. If this be true, the effect 
of malaria will be constantly to resist the invigorating influx which nature has 
provided: and there are many facts in the history of India, Italy, and Africa, 
which could be brought forward in support of this hypothesis. 
“«We now come face to face with that profoundly interesting subject, the 
political, economical, and historical significance of this great disease. We know 
that malaria must have existed in Greece ever since the time of Hippocrates, 
about 400 B. C. What effect has it had on the life of the country? In pre- 
historic times Greece was certainly peopled by successive waves of Aryan in- 
vaders from the north—probably a fair-haired people—who made it what it 
became, who conquered Persia and Egypt, and who created the sciences, arts, and 
philosophies which we are only developing further to-day. That race reached 
its climax of development at the time of Pericles. Those great and beautiful 
valleys were thickly peopled by a civilization which in some ways has not been 
excelled. LEverywhere there were cities, temples, oracles, arts, philosophies, and 
a population vigorous and well trained in arms. Lake Kopais, now almost 
deserted, was surrounded by towns whose massive works remain to this day. 
Suddenly, however, a blight fell over all. Was it due to internecine conflict or 
to foreign conquest? Scarcely; for history shows that war burns and ravages, 
but does not annihilate. Thebes was thrice destroyed, but thrice rebuilt. Or 
was it due to some cause, entering furtively and gradually sapping away the 
energies of the race by attacking the rural population, by slaying the new- 
born infant, by seizing the rising generation, and especially by killing out the 
fair-haired descendant of the original settlers, leaving behind chiefly the more 
immunised and darker children of their captives, won by the sword from Asia 
and Africa? ... 
“<T can not imagine Lake Kopais, in its present highly malarious condition, 
to have been thickly peopled by a vigorous race ; nor, on looking at these wonder- 
ful figured tombstones at Athens, can I imagine that the healthy and powerful 
people represented upon them could have ever passed through the anaemic and 
splenomegalous infancy (to coin a word) caused by widespread malaria. Well, 
I venture only to suggest the hypothesis, and must leave it to scholars for con- 
firmation or rejection. Of one thing I am confident, that causes such as malaria, 
dysentery, and intestinal entoza must have modified history to a much greater 
extent than we conceive. Our historians and economists do not seem even to 
have considered the matter. It is true that they speak of epidemic diseases, but 
the endemic diseases are really those of the greatest importance. . . . 
“©The whole life of Greece must suffer from this weight, which crushes its 
rural energies. Where the children suffer so much, how can the country create 
that fresh blood which keeps a nation young? But for a hamlet here and there, 
those famous valleys are deserted. I saw from a spur of Helikon the sun setting 
upon Parnassus, Apollo sinking, as he was wont to do, towards his own fane at 
Delphi, and pouring a flood of light over the great Kopaik Plain. But it seemed 
that he was the only inhabitant of it. There was nothing there. ‘Who,’ said a 
rich Greek to me, ‘ would think of going to live in such a place as that?” I doubt 
much whether it is the Turk who has done all this. I think it is very largely the 
malaria. 
“Tn considering carefully this suggestive argument of Major Ross does it not 
appear to indicate the tremendous influence that the prevalence of endemic 
disease must exert upon the progress of modern nations, and does it not bring 
the thought that those nations that are most advanced in sanitary science and 
preventive medicine will, other things being equal, assume the lead in the 
world’s work? Who can estimate the influence of the sanitary laws of the 
