36 LOSS Tintortiii insects that carry disease. 
x-icntiiic investigations concerning disease, one of the projects sup- 
ported by the General Government was the investigation of Doctors 
Copeman and NuttaU on flies as carriers of disease. 
A leading editorial in an afternoon paper of the city of Washing- 
ton, of October 20, 1908. bears the heading, "Typhoid a National 
Scourge," arguing that it i- to-day as great a scourge as tuberculosis. 
The editorial writer might equally well have used the heading •'Ty- 
phoid a National Reproach," or perhaps even "Typhoid a National 
Crime," since it is an absolutely preventable disease. And a- for the 
typhoid fly. that a creature horn in indescribable filth and absolutely 
swarming with disease germs should practically be invited to mul- 
tiply unchecked, even in great centers of population, is surely nothing 
less than criminal. 
ENDEMIC DISEASE AS AFFECTING THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS. 
In referring to the spread of malaria in Greece, the relation of this 
disease to the rise and fall of national power has been touched upon 
in an earlier paragraph of this bulletin (p. 9). The subject is one of 
the widest importance and deserves a more extended consideration. 
The following paragraphs are quoted from Ronald Ross's address 
on Malaria in Greece, delivered before the Oxford Medical Society. 
November 29, 1906: 
" Now, what must be the effect of this ubiquitous and everlasting 
incubus of disease on the people of modern Greece? Remember that 
the malady is essentially one of infancy among the native population. 
Infecting the child one or two years after birth, it persecutes him 
until puberty with a long succession of febrile attacks, accompanied 
by much splenomegaly and anaemia. Imagine the effect it would 
produce upon our own children here in Britain. It is true that our 
children suffer from many complaints — scarlatina, measles, whoop- 
ing cough — but these are of brief duration and transient. But now 
add to these, in imagination, a malady which lasts for years, and may 
sometimes attack every child in a village. What would be the 
effect upon our population — especially our rural population — upon 
their numbers and upon the health and vigour of the survivors? It 
must be enormous in Greece. People often seem to think that such a 
plague strengthens a race by killing off the weaker individuals; but 
this view rests upon the unproven assumption that it is really the 
weaker children which can not survive. On the contrary, experience 
seems to -how that it is the stronger blood which suffers most — the 
fair, northern blood which nature attempts constantly to pour into 
the southern lands. If this be true, the effect of malaria will be 
constantly to resisl the invigorating influx which nature ha- provided ; 
and there are many facts in the history of India. Italy, and Africa 
which could be brought forward in support of this hypothesis. 
