CHAPTER VII 



MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA 



VER since the beginning of history we 

 have records of certain fevers that have 

 been called by different names accord- 

 ing to the people that were affected. 

 As we study these names and the various writings 

 concerning the fevers we find that a great group 

 of the most important of them are what we to-day 

 know as malarial fevers. Not only are these ills 

 as old as history but they have been observed over 

 almost the entire inhabited earth. There are cer- 

 tain regions in all countries where malaria does 

 not occur, but almost always it will be found that 

 other regions near by are infected and it very often 

 happens that these infected regions are the most 

 profitable parts of the land, the places where water 

 is plentiful and vegetation is luxuriant. Indeed 

 the coincidence of these two things, low-lying lands 

 with an abundance of water, particularly stand- 

 ing water, and malaria has always been noted and 

 gave rise to the earliest theories in regard to the 

 cause of the disease. 



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