Proce:e:dings 0^ Fii^TH Annual Mkkting 69 



the best geological surveys in the world, but there is apparently 

 no connection between the federal and the state geological sur- 

 veys, or the soil surveys and the malaria eradication demonstra- 

 tion or control efforts of which in every other respect we have 

 ample reason to feel proud. The maps in our reports are usually 

 poor, the diagrams are faulty and the statistical tables are not in 

 conformity to accepted principles of statistical analysis. The 

 elaborate plan of co-operation presented in the original "Plan 

 and Plea" for the work of the National Malaria Committee has 

 failed almost in its entirety because of a want of an active in- 

 terest on the part of the authorities, commercial or private inter- 

 ests, etc., directly concerned. Certainly not less than half a 

 hundred agencies of all kinds could be made available and would 

 exert a truly tremendous influence if more intelligently co- 

 ordinated for the purpose of malaria eradication than is at 

 present the case. 



Thus, for illustration, the Mississippi River Commission ought 

 to be actively interested m this question, for practically every 

 county bordering on the Mississippi below St. Louis is more or 

 less a hotbed of malaria. Every laborer employed in Mississippi 

 reclamation work or levee construction is directly exposed to the 

 risk of malarial disease, and there can be no question of doubt 

 as to the fact that the economic loss on account of malaria 

 throughout the year must be considerable. The commission may 

 become interested in time when the doctrine of workmen's com- 

 pensation for occupational diseases is applied to malaria and 

 when the United States Compensation Commission will find itself 

 confronted by a large number of unnecessary claims upon the 

 Government because of apathy and indifference to matters of 

 prevention and control which have been established beyond con- 

 troyersy. 



In its broader aspects all malaria eradication efforts rest funda- 

 mentally upon mosquito extermination. It is not only health, 

 but also comfort, that is insisted upon to-day as a prerequisite 

 to efficiency in labor and life. There is also an aesthetic aspect 

 to this question which cannot be ignored. There is to-day an 

 insistence upon clean communities that are a joy to the eye and 



