493 
That  this  is  the  case  is  brought  out  in  the  table.  Manchester, 
which  is  an  extremely  mountainous  parish  and  where  the  principal 
centres  of  population  are  for  the  most  part  situated  at  high  levels, 
shows  the  lowest  malarial  death-rate  of  all,  namely,  r6  per  i,ooo. 
On  the  other  hand,  St.  Thomas  heads  the  list  with  a  malarial 
death-rate  of  6' 5  per  1,000.  Here  the  local  conditions  are  quite 
different.  A  number  of  large  rivers,  the  Yallahs,  the  Negro,  the 
Morant,  and  the  Garden,  rush  sharply  down  from  the  Blue  Mountains 
to  spread  out  in  the  plain  below  into  broad  shallow  streams  with,  in 
many  cases,  swampy  outlets. 
And  the  other  parishes  which  show  a  considerable  malarial  death- 
rate,  St.  Catherine,  Westmoreland,  St.  Mary,  Clarendon  and  Portland, 
show  much  the  same  conditions,  a  mountainous  hinterland  with  well- 
watered  alluvial  plains  devoted  largely  to  banana  and  sugar 
cultivation. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Kingston,  which  unfortunately  possesses 
the  highest  death-rate  in  the  Island,  pointing  to  general  insanitary 
conditions  apart  from  malaria,  shows  a  low  malarial  rate,  the 
proportion  of  deaths  from  malaria  being  only  8  per  cent.,  and  a 
systematic  malarial  survey  of  the  town  would  certainly  show  that 
malaria  is  limited  to  well  defined  areas.  This  immunity  is  undoubtedly 
due  to  the  lower  rainfall  and  to  the  fact  that  the  surface  drains  are 
largely  cemented,  and  it  would  be  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to 
banish  malaria  entirely  from  the  capital  of  the  Island. 
The  deaths  attributed  to  malaria  in  the  whole  island  in  1907  were 
4,094,  while  the  total  deaths  from  the  same  cause  for  the  ten  years 
was  34,695,  an  appreciable  factor  in  the  industrial  and  economic 
development  of  the  Island. 
But  the  actual  death-rate  from  malaria  does  not  represent  fully 
the  amount  of  that  disease ;  the  death-rate  will  depend  upon 
the  particular  type  of  malaria  prevalent,  and  also  upon  the 
degree  of  immunity  which  is  undoubtedly  acquired  by  a  native 
population.  They  may  suffer  to  a  large  extent  from  malaria  though 
they  do  not  die  of  it,  and  the  extent  to  which  malaria  prevails  not 
only  affects  the  general  health  and  physique  of  a  community  but 
interferes  with  its  efficiency  for  industrial  purposes  and  throws  a  very 
considerable  financial  strain  on  the  colony  of  Jamaica. 
