12 T. P. ANDERSON STUART. 



Frenchman, Laveran, in 1880. And a great many more 

 such minute animal parasites are now known, so that they 

 share with the lowly minute algoid plants, the bacteria, 

 the unenviable reputation of being the causes of germ 

 disease. This organism is transferred from the diseased 

 to the healthy, generally, if not always, by the agency of 

 the mosquito, as was suggested by Manson in 1894, and 

 proved by Ross about 1898. And now all the efforts of 

 sanitarians in this department are to find out what 

 mosquitoes are the dangerous ones, by finding in what 

 mosquitoes the Plasmodium malarias will develop, and 

 then finding where they breed, to destroy the larvae. This 

 usually means doing away with all collections of surplus 

 water, draining or filling pools or other such collections 

 of more or less stagnant water, or covering the surface 

 with oil, which prevents the larvae getting to the air, so 

 that they die. Wells and cisterns and tanks are protected 

 by mosquito-proof gauze. The house is protected by 

 similar gauze, and the sleeper by mosquito curtains. 

 Lastly, a malarious patient is isolated. All these measures 

 are suggested by the discovery of the organism and its 

 carrier. 



Stimulated by the proved conveyance of the Plasmodium 

 by the mosquito, and by the remarkable success which had 

 attended the efforts of sanitarians to combat malaria, I 

 began, some eight years ago, to be interested in the subject, 

 and moved the Trustees of the Australian Museum to speci- 

 ally collect the mosquitoes of Australia. They sent out 

 many circulars with directions how to collect and forward 

 the insects for identification, but owing to the apathy of 

 the people, I suppose, their efforts produced no results. 

 There appear to be about 34 known species in Australia, 

 though doubtless many more remain to be identified. We 

 have the genera of mosquitoes in Australia which have been 



