38 LOSS THROUGH INSECTS THAT CARRY DISEASE. 
that he was the only inhabitant of it. There was nothing there. 
•Who." said a rich Greek to me, 'would think of going to live in 
Mich a place as that? ' I doubt much whether it is the Turk who 
has done all this. I think it is very largely the malaria." 
In considering carefully this suggestive argument of Major Ross 
docs it not appear to indicate the tremendous influence that the 
prevalence of endemic disease must exert upon the progress of mod- 
ern nation.-, and doe- it not bring the thought that those nation- that 
are most advanced in sanitary science and preventive medicine will, 
other things being equal, assume the lead in the world's work ( Who 
can estimate the influence of the sanitary laws of the Hebrew scrip- 
tures upon the extraordinary persistence of that race through cen- 
turies of European oppression — centuries full of plague years and 
of terrible mortality from preventable disease I And what more 
striking example can be advanced of the effect of an enlightened 
and scientifically careful attention to the most recent advances of 
preventive medicine upon the progress of nations than the mortality 
-latistics of the Japanese armies in the recent Russo-Japane-e war as 
compared with the corresponding statistics for the Briti>h army 
during the Boer war immediately preceding, or for the American 
Army during the Spanish war at a somewhat earlier date? 
The consideration of these elements of national progress ha- been 
neglected by historians, but they are nevertheless of deep-reaching 
importance and must attract immediate attention in this age of 
advanced civilization. The world has entered the historical age 
when national greatness and national decay will he based on physical 
rather than moral conditions, and it is vitally incumbent upon na- 
tions to use eveiy possible effort and every possible means to check 
physical deterioration. 
