MALARIA EXPEDITION TO NIGERIA 247 
years of age, and almost all children under five years, are infected with malarial para- 
sites, often in large numbers, and that their blood frequently contains the parasites 
in that stage — ' gametes ' — in which they are naturally fitted for the further develop- 
ment of their life history in the mosquito. It is evident that the mosquito, while 
serving as the definitive host for the malarial parasite, carries the infecting agent from 
the native children to other natives and to Europeans. As it is the custom through- 
out the whole of Nigeria and, indeed, throughout the whole of West Africa, almost 
universally, for the European to dwell in close proximity to the native, the children 
constitute continually an eminently dangerous source of malarial fever for the 
European. It is, therefore, evident that if the method suggested — the universal 
administration of quinine — be adopted, the native must be also treated — as Professor 
Koch suggested, and apparently carried out successfully in parts of the German East 
Indies. It is not sufficient that the European alone should use quinine — and, more- 
over, it is with difficulty that the majority of Europeans on the Coast can be 
prevailed upon to use quinine regularly and intelligently. 
Professor Koch qualifies the possibility of the adoption of this method by the 
supposition that the people to be treated are an 'intelligent and obedient community.' 
Exceedingly few of the natives of West Africa, and especially of Nigeria, can be 
brought under this description — in fact it can be safely stated that throughout the 
whole of Nigeria, we never met with a community which could be in anyway classed 
as 'obedient and intelligent.' The native of Old Calabar — the seat of government in 
Southern Nigeria — is stupid, unintelligent, and indifferent ; those of the Bonny and 
Opobo districts, who have been longer in contact with Europeans, are just feeling the 
effects of civilisation, but they still look upon any new procedure on the part of the 
' white man ' with superstitious distrust and perplexity. The natives of other parts 
of the delta and of the Niger banks are mostly uncivilised, and often run away at the 
sight of a European : while there are towns in the interior only occasionally visited 
by 'white men,' or which are absolutely unopened. It is true that the native chiefs 
are often intelligent and educated men, but these are exceedingly few. It is extremely 
doubtful whether in such towns as Sierra Leone, Accra, Cape Coast Castle, and Lagos, 
where civilisation is fairly advanced, the introduction of any such practice as Professor 
Koch suggests, is at all possible. It is evidently absolutely impossible for Nigeria, 
even if the cost and freightage of the immense quantities which would be necessary 
for the purpose, did not put it completely out of question — for there are numbers of 
towns of population exceeding 5,000, some even reaching 30,000 and 50,000, and 
even more. 
Among Europeans in West Atrica, the usual practice as to the taking of 
quinine as a prophylactic, is to take five grains every day, or five to ten grains when 
they feel a little indisposed, ' out of sorts,' or when they think of it. Of the 
inefficiency of the latter as a preventative measure there can be no doubt, and it is 
