114 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



and it appears that the observation was not uncommon in the early years of 

 last century, when ague was generally prevalent in some parts of England. A 

 good example has been noted this year at Hammersmith in the person of a 

 soldier's wife who, last autumn, stayed a few days with a malaria-infected 

 family in the Isle of Grain. No symptoms were noticed until the middle of 

 March this year, when she had a typical attack with many parasites in the 

 peripheral blood. Professor Yorke, of Liverpool, has recently mentioned a 

 similar experience of indigenous cases in which the infection remained latent 

 until the spring. 



It was my privilege to consider this and related matters in conver- 

 sations with Sir Ronald Ross and Lieut.-Col. S. P. James, M. D., of 

 the War Office and the Ministry of Health, and subsequently with 

 Dr. Balfour, at the Welcome Research Bureau, and Lieut.-Col. J. 

 W. W. Stephens, at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. I 

 may recall the Noble Prize Lecture for 1902, on "Research and 

 Malaria," by Sir Ronald Ross, as an admirable condensation of an 

 enormous subject, illustrating his extraordinary ability in presenting 

 a mass of information in the form of a comparatively few brief 

 decisions. I may also refer to the really extraordinary series of 

 studies in the treatment of malaria, numbering thirty in all, as an 

 illustration of the painstaking care which this question is receiving 

 on the part of qualified authorities in Great Britain. It is true that 

 no country in the world has a larger interest in malaria prevention, 

 on account of the colonial empire, which includes some of the most 

 malarious sections in the world. But we as yet have nothing to 

 compare with the work of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medi- 

 cine, nor, for that matter, with the thorough-going ef¥orts of the 

 British Ministry of Health and the experimental work of the War 

 Office at Sandwich. 



By way of contrast, attention may be directed to an extremely 

 interesting address on the cost of malaria, by Harold F. Gray, for- 

 merly State District Health Officer of the California State Board of 

 Health. This address, originally contributed to the Proceedings of 

 the American Medical Association, emphasizes the lamentable cost 

 of neglect and indifference on the part of the authorities, which must 

 needs react seriously, if not disastrously, upon the communities con- 

 cerned. For, as Mr. Gray observes, "Although the regulations of the 

 State Board of Health require that malaria be reported, this regula- 

 tion is not enforced." If a state has any single duty in connection 

 with disease prevention it is the prompt reporting and notification of 

 diseases within the preventable class. Mr. Gray made a house-to- 



