ii6 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



The indirect effect of malaria on the mortality rate is probably more to be 

 feared than the direct. It would be difficult to give any idea of its malign in- 

 fluence on the causation of deaths in infancy and on those due ostensibly to 

 respiratory diseases. It certainly has a serious effect on the birth-rate and on 

 the expectation of life, while it is the greatest of all the causes for disability 

 and inefficiency in the adult. 



It is of the utmost urgency that facts like the foregoing should 

 be brought home to the population of districts or sections in which 

 the spread of malaria is a foregone conclusion as the result of apathy, 

 indifference and neglect. Messrs. Geiger, Purdy and Tarbet, in an 

 address before the American Medical Association on ''Effective 

 Malaria Control in a Ricefield District," clearly demonstrated that 

 it was possible to eradicate malaria from such districts as the result 

 of measures which are now thoroughly understood and the applica- 

 tion of which is not beyond the means of the community concerned. 

 These authors point out the immense difficulty in obtaining complete 

 malaria control, but they also emphasize the importance of the de- 

 tection of the human carriers. The efforts which are being made in 

 this respect in the malarious districts of Mississippi and Louisiana 

 under the direction of the International Health Board of the Rocke- 

 feller Foundation, are certain to prove productive of far-reaching 

 practical results. The ''Studies on Malaria Control," by Dr. C. C. 

 Bass, indicate the progress which is being made and the enormous 

 practical difficulties which are gradually being successfully over- 

 come. Of equal interest is the work of the United States Bureau of 

 Entomology at Mound, La., which, though interrupted by the war, 

 is being resumed, with the certainty of useful and possibly far-reach- 

 ing results. Dr. Bass assumes a ten-year period as sufficient for the 

 purpose of reducing the present incidence of malaria in intensely 

 infected areas to about 5 per cent. Complete eradication is probably 

 impossible, but a sufficient amount of experience has been had to 

 prove that the theoretical considerations of today justify the hope 

 of practical achievement in the near future. 



We are making progress in this country but we are not maintaining 

 the sustained interest urgently called for by the vast importance of 

 what is at stake. I have referred to the Malaria Bureau of the Pun- 

 jab, which is but one of many illustrations of the more concentrated 

 interest in other countries which it would be well for us to follow. 

 I may also refer to the Malaria Advisory Board of the Federated 

 Malay States, the report of which for 191 8 contains some ex- 



