98 



PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



These pools are then carefully watched, and examined at frequent intervals. This is 

 a sure way to indicate the presence of the mosquito, and is a trap for those about to 

 spawn. They are thus most easily destroyed. In many zones of the city these traps 

 revealed the presence of no mosquitoes whatever. 



The actual results which followed this admirable work are shown by 

 a table indicating the death rate from yellow fever in Kio from 1872 

 to date, which indicates that perfect success has been reached. 



Mortality from yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro from 1872 to August, 1909. 



Year. 



Deaths. 



Year. 



Deaths. 



1872 



102 

 3,659 



829 

 1,292 

 3,476 



282 

 1,176 



974 

 1,625 



257 



89 



1,608 



863 



445 

 1,449 



137 



747 

 2,156 



719 



1891 



4,456 



4,312 



825 



1873 



1892 



1874 



1893 



1875 



1894 



4,852 

 818 



1876 



1895 



1877 



1896 



2,929 

 159 



1878 



1897 



1879 



1898 



1,078 

 731 



1880 



1899 



1881 



1900. . 



344 



1882 



1901. 



2,299 

 984 



1883 



1902 



1884 



1903 



584 



1885 



1904 



48 



1886 



1905 



289 



1887 



1906 



42 



1888 



1907 



39 



1889 



1908 



4 



1890 



1909 













WORK IN ALGERIA. 



In 1902 an antimalarial campaign was begun in Algeria under the 

 auspices and at the expense of the Pasteur Institute of Paris. The 

 Avork was begun in a small way, and the service was afterwards ex- 

 tended and supported by the Algerian government and is still being 

 carried on. Dr. Edmond Sergent was assigned to the work, and in 

 1903 published an account of the early demonstrations. The inves- 

 tigators propounded to themselves the following question: Is it pos- 

 sible, under the practical conditions existing in Algeria, to defend a 

 group of Europeans from malaria ? And they decided to use no pro- 

 phylactic measures whatever except the destruction of Anopheles. 

 The management of the East Algerian Railroad placed at the disposal 

 of the service one of the stations of that line. This station, which was 

 called Alma, was a hotbed of malaria. Nine agents had been stationed 

 there between the 1st of July, 1894, and the 1st of December, 1901. 

 All of them were seriously ill with malaria, and the first eight left their 

 positions on account of malarial fever on the advice of their physi- 

 cians. The ninth was the man in charge at the time, who was very 

 thoroughly infected. The families of these agents, concerning which 

 there were no statistics, were all and always feverish, according to the 

 best information. It seems that there did not exist a person who had 

 ever lived in this station a single summer without contracting malaria. 



