MOSCJ i - and MALARIA. 1 .", 
ciency of the parties was reduced, at a very conservative estimate, l>\ 
25 per cent. 
•• In ii i \ recent visit in this field I found one man sick in each <>f 
Lhe parties I saw and one man who had just returned from the 
hospital leaving the field for good. A similar state <d" things was 
reported from the other parties. I regard the sickness as practically 
all of a malarial nature, as extreme care was taken in all the camps 
to use nothing but boiled water except in a few instances where arte- 
sian water from ureal depths was available. In all the camps the 
tents have been screened, and in every case where the topographer has 
lived for any time "on the country' there has been infection. As 
illustrating the value of the precautions generally taken by our camp 
parties, I might cite the fact that last year in West Virginia with 30 
men living in camp, with typhoid fever prevalent in the neighborhood. 
no cases developed, while with 6 men living on the country where 
the same care could not be taken regarding the water supply, two 
cases of typhoid developed." 
In estimating the weight of Doctor Smith's statement, it must he 
borne in mind that the men of his held parties are exceptionally in- 
telligent and prepared to take all ordinary precautions. 
Throughout the region in question malaria is practically universal. 
The railroads Miller, and at the stations throughout the territory it is 
practically impossible to keep operators steadily at work. This re- 
duction in efficiency in the surveying parties and in the local railroad 
officials is moreover probably very considerably less than the reduc- 
tion in the earning capacity of the entire population, which, however, 
i^ necessarily scanty. 
In an excellent paper entitled " The relation of malaria to agricul- 
tural and other industries of the South," published in the Popular 
Science Monthly for April, 1903, Prof. Glenn W. Herrick, then of 
the College of Agriculture of Mississippi, after a consideration of 
the whole field, concludes that malaria is responsible for more sick- 
ness among the white population of the South than any disease to 
which it is now subject. The folloAving forcible statement referring 
to the States of Loui.-iana. Mississippi, Alabama. Georgia, and South 
Carolina is in Professor Herrick's word-: 
" We must now consider briefly what 635,000 or a million cases of 
chill- and fever- in one year mean. It is a self-evident truth that it 
mean- well for the physician. But for laboring men it means an 
immense loss of their time together with the doctor^' fee- in many 
instances. If members of their families other than themselves be 
affected, it may also mean a loss of time together with the doctors' 
fee-. For the employer it mean- the loss of labor at a time perhaps 
when it would be of greatest value. It it doe-, not mean the actual 
loss of labor to the employer it will mean a loss in the efficiency of 
