529 
MALARIA AND HISTORY 
BY 
W. H. S. JONES, M.A. 
(j*KRSE SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE) 
{Received for publication, December nth, 1907) 
It seems likely that disease has exercised considerable influence 
upon the history of mankind. In the struggle for existence, man, by 
his intelligence, has long since removed wild beasts from the 
number of his competitors. In civilised parts of the world, at least, 
the struggle is now limited to competition with his fellow-men and 
with the parasites of disease. The study of man’s combat with man is 
history as at present understood ; the antagonism of man and 
parasites may prove to be equally important. Although the 
biological study of disease is still in its infancy, the time has come to 
collect material, and by careful induction to try to discover any laws 
which may appear to have a temporary validity. F urthermore, it is 
well so to limit the investigation as to explore more thoroughly a 
narrower field before attempting to draw wider inferences or to 
formulate more general laws. 
The effects of endemic disease are easier to investigate than those 
of epidemics, because the influence exerted is continuous, and spiead 
over a long period. For a similar reason the question is better 
studied from the historical side than by a consideration of the present 
state of countries where disease is endemic ; although, of course, the 
latter method will furnish valuable information of which use must be 
made. Among endemic diseases, malaria, from its wide extension, 
the large percentage of a people attacked by it, and its long history, 
appears to afford the best starting-point for the enquirer. 
Convinced of the truth of the above statements, the writer began 
to enquire whether malaria played any part in the history of ancient 
Greece and Rome, the decline of which is generally thought to have 
commenced during the fourth century B.C. in the case of the former, 
and in the second century B.C. in the case of the latter, 
suggestion had already been made by Major R. Ross, but there was 
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