5 .?o 
practically no previous literature on the subject, as the valuable paper 
by Professor Aristotle Ivouzis, Tiva irep i eXetoyevmv miperwv, 
Athens, 1907, had not yet appeared. On the other hand, the ancient 
literature containing references to malaria was of immense size, and 
none of it could safely be neglected. The means used to identify 
malaria in ancient literature were as follows: 
(1) Tertian and quartan fevers are almost certainly malaria. 
(2) Quotidian fevers are very likely malaria. 
( 3 ) Enlargement of the spleen and early autumnal fevers very 
often mean malaria. 
(4) Fever in marshy districts is probably malaria. 
Of course the ancients knew nothing about microscopes and the 
action of quinine. 
MALARIA IN GREECE • 
^ here is an early reference to 7 ruperos in Homer, but the word 
means there, in all probability, “ heat ” not “ fever.” The only other 
possible reference in early times is in Theognis, who lived about 
54 ° Bc - at Megara. Tie talks in one passage of lyiriaXos, which 
certainly in later Greek often means ague. In a recent volume, 
however, of Pauly-Wissowa’s Classical Encyclopaedia, it is suggested 
t at this woid was originally connected with the nightmare demon, 
n that case Theognis may be referring to the fright-rigors of night¬ 
mare, and not to malaria. 
is impoitant to notice that Hesiod, the Boeotian poet, does not 
ntion malaria as one of the farmer’s plagues, though we can be 
t iat he would have done so had the disease existed. Boeotia 
W malarious, but in very early times just those places in it 
da • C cTT ^° r * la, ^ tat * on w bich are most unhealthy at the present 
liisto ' r re> malaria cann ot have been in this district from pre- 
work r!f t? leS ft 1S tlUe t,iat S “idas quotes eVtaA-r?/? from some lost 
Greek it eS '° d ' but alth °«gh this word is said to mean ague in later 
In th T ta y meant n ^tmare at first, 
between nen PP ° Crat * c XNnt mgs, which may be placed approximately 
mentioned a 25 ° BC ’. ^ the “ tests ” of malaria given above are 
writings cerV*' ^ anc ^ ^ must not be forgotten that these 
in the Easfor ^ 1In P^> <l long tradition behind them. Accordingly. 
parts of Greece, the home of the doctors who wrote 
