HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO MALARIA 
3 
Antiquity op Malaria Infections 
Those who desire to pursue this fascina¬ 
ting subject may find an introduction in 
Hirsch (1883), in the opening chapter of 
Ross (1910), in Jones (1909), in Dock 
(1931) and in Hoops (1934). 
Progress in Basic Scientific Knowledge 
Perhaps the earliest verification in the 
United States of Laveran’s discovery of 
the malarial parasite was effected by 
Sternberg (1886), who, recently returned 
from studies under Marehiafava and Celli, 
demonstrated the parasites to Dr. Wm. H. 
Welch in the latter’s laboratory, in the 
blood of an active clinical case. It was 
several years before effective staining tech¬ 
niques were introduced, and in those early 
years, on the infrequent occasions when 
microscopical diagnosis was practiced, it 
was commonly done with fresh blood. At¬ 
tention was naturally more directed to the 
large parasites, and the type of preparation 
employed facilitated exflagellation of the 
microgametocytes. The nature of the proc¬ 
ess was not understood until MacCallum 
(1897) saw a free flagellum enter a quiet 
spherical form, and recognized the signifi¬ 
cance of the act. Among other early ob¬ 
servers of the parasites, Opie, Dock and 
Thayer should be mentioned. 
Long before it became possible to differen¬ 
tiate surely between yellow fever and falci¬ 
parum malaria (bilious remittent fever) a 
number of physicians in the Americas had 
come to suspect that mosquitoes were in¬ 
volved in the transmission of both diseases. 
Perhaps the first to advance such an idea 
was Nott (1848), who was followed by 
Beauperthay (1854). The most practical 
development of this idea was effected by 
King (1883), who advanced the following 
propositions: 
(1) The malaria season corresponds to 
the season of mosquito abundance; (2) 
malarial country is suitable for mosquito 
breeding; (3) similar conditions afford 
protection against malaria and against 
mosquitoes; (4) exposure to night air 
means exposure to mosquitoes; (5) spldiers, 
tramps and fishermen are particularly sus¬ 
ceptible to malaria and are especially ex¬ 
posed to mosquitoes at night; (6) turning 
up the soil or making excavations in pre¬ 
viously healthy districts is often followed 
by malaria; (7) coincidence of malaria 
and mosquitoes, increase of both in late 
summer and autumn. 
It is likely that the demonstration of the 
tick transmission of Texas fever of cattle 
by Smith and Kilborne, in 1893, may have 
influenced Manson in his inference that 
malarial gametocytes achieve their destiny 
in mosquitoes. The first attempt to verify 
the work of Ross and of Grassi with Amer¬ 
ican anophelines was reported by Thayer 
(1900), who infected A. quadrimaculatus 
with P. vivax and P. falciparum, and in 
the following year Waldert (1901) infected 
this species with the latter parasite. How¬ 
ever, these American students discontinued 
their observations as soon as cysts were 
detected on the stomach walls. The results 
reported by some subsequent observers were 
erroneous or inconclusive (Beyer et al., 
1902a), and not until the work of King 
(1916b) was the susceptibility of the three 
commonest North American anophelines 
adequately studied. 
Probably the earliest work incriminating 
any Neotropical species was carried out by 
Darling (1910), as a result of which the 
importance of A. albimanus in malaria 
transmission in the Caribbean region was 
ascertained. These studies led to the de¬ 
velopment of a program in the Canal Zone 
which concentrated the attack on malaria 
to this species of anopheline. 
Prior to 1900 the anophelines, as well as 
mosquitoes in general, had received only 
cursory attention from American ento¬ 
mologists, and it is noteworthy that of the 
5 species described from North America 
and the Caribbean up to that year only two 
had been described by an American stu¬ 
dent. Those known at that time were: 
albimanus Wiedeman, 1821 
punctipennis Say, 1823 (1819) 
quadrimaculatus Say, 1824 
argyritarsis Robineau-Desvoidy, 1827 
crucians Wiedeman, 1828 
