12 Less THROUGH [NSECTS THAT CARET? DISEASE. 
discrepancy necessarily be that it would not -win at all unlikely to 
the writer if the number of persons suffering from malaria in Italy 
weiv in reality nearer 3,000,000 than 2,000,000. 
'Flic same argument will hold for the United States, and more 
especially so since a- a rule malaria in this country is of a lighter 
type than in Italy: in fact an estimate of -'UJOO.OOO cases of malaria 
in the United States annually i- probably by no mean- too high. It 
will not be an exaggeration to estimate that one-fourth of the produc- 
tive capacity of an individual suffering with an average case of ma- 
laria is Lost. Accepting this a- a basis, and including the loss through 
death, the cost of medicine-, the losses to enterprises in malarious 
regions through the difficulty of securing competent labor, and other 
factors, it is safe to place the annual loss to the United State> from 
malarial disease under present conditions at not le^s than one hundred 
millions of dollars. Celli has shown that in Italy the great railway 
industries, for example, feel the effect of malaria greatly. Accord- 
ing to accurate calculations one company alone, for 1,400 kilometers 
of railway and for 6,416 workmen in malarious zones, spends on ac- 
count of malaria 1,050,000 francs a year. The same writer states that 
the army in Italy from 1877 to 1897 had more than 300,000 cases of 
malaria. 
The loss to this country in the way of retardation of the develop- 
ment of certain regions, owing to the presence of malaria, i- extremely 
great. Certain territory containing most fertile soil and capable of 
the highest agricultural productiveness is practically abandoned. 
With the introduction of proper drainage measures and antimosquito 
work of other character, millions of acres of untold capacity could 
be released from the scourge at a comparatively slight expenditure. 
These regions in the absence of malaria would have added millions 
upon millions to the wealth of the country. Drainage measures are 
now being initiated by the United States. Parties of engineer- are 
being sent by the Government to make preliminary drainage sur- 
veys in the most prominent of these potentially productive regions. 
The following statement concerning the effect of malaria on the 
progress of this work has been made to the writer by Dr. George Otis 
Smith, director of the United State- Geological Survey: 
" In one of the Southern State- 1 1 topographic parties have been at 
work during the past field season. The full quota for these panic- 
would be 55 men. but I believe that something over 100 men have 
been employed at different times during the season. While I have 
not exact figure- before me, I feel warranted in the statement that at 
least 95 per cent of these employee- have been sick, for periods rang- 
ing from a few days up to two weeks, in the hospital. Many of them 
have been able later to return to work, but at leas! 30 per cent had 
to leave the field permanently. Bv reason of this sickness the effi- 
