A MALARIA SURVEY IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 
By N. H. SWELLENGREBEL, Ph.D. 
and J. M. H. SWELLENGREBEL-DE GRAAF, Amsterdam. 
(From the Institute of Tropical Hygiene, Amsterdam.) 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Introduction .......... 180 
I. The principal Vectors of Malaria in the Malay Archipelago 182 
II. Habitats of the Anopheline Larvae .... 192 
III. Practical importance of the Larval Habitat . . . 196 
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . 197 
References . . . . ... . . . 197 
INTRODUCTION. 
The great discovery of Sir Ronald Ross lias not led to the suppression of 
malaria in the Netherlands’ East Indian Colonies, where the disease is still 
all too prevalent. The failure is partly, if not wholly, due to the mistake that 
has been made in considering the facts revealed by this discovery as an all 
sufficient basis for practical sanitary measures, whereas they can only serve 
as a foundation for further research in which special and local conditions are 
taken into account, with the object of acquiring information which is essential 
for the success of a sanitary campaign. 
Local research has been much hampered by the confusion which has 
existed in the nomenclature of the various Anopheline species of the Malay 
Archipelago, a confusion due, no doubt, to entomologists, notably Donitz and 
Theobald, having worked at the subject more or less independently. This lack 
of coordination gave rise to a confusion which rendered the subject almost 
unapproachable for the ordinary medical man. Apart from specimens pre¬ 
served in European museums, nothing was known concerning our Anopheline 
fauna, and especially notable was our ignorance regarding the infectability of 
the various species with malarial parasites. Ignorance of these essential data 
made successful anti-malaria measures impossible because we undertook the 
impossible task of abolishing all Anopheline breeding places. The number, 
variety, and extensive distribution of these breeding places, including waggon 
tracks, hoof-prints, and other small depressions, of constant occurrence, even 
on well drained land, during the rainy season, made effective petrolisation 
impracticable. Could this difficulty have been surmounted, there still remained 
the most extensive breeding places of all, the rice fields. These furnish the 
