The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-08-23
MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA.
The Insects Responsible for the Spread
of the Disease.

DIR. Koch's Views.
For number of years great NUMBER
OF skilled observers searched perslstentiy
for the cause of malarial fever. LII re-
manned, however, for DIR. Laveran,
french army surgeon, now professor aO
the medical school at Val de Grace, TO
announce, in 1880, that he had discoverod
parasite inside of the red corpusoles of
patients sick of the nalarial fever that
was very probably the cause of the dis
ease. He recognized that they were
parasites belonging to the lowest forms of
animal life and proba bly, amoeba, as they
showed amoeboid movements. 1t is to be
remeInb ered that they are not bacteria,
which are the lowest forms of vegetable
life, and are as differ en- from an amoeba
as man is from a tree. For several
years the discovery attracted little atten
ton. 1t was finally taken up by mum
Der of skilled miorosoopists in this an d
other malarial countries, who have not
only confirmed it, but with the aid of
more powerful microscopes assisted in
placing the discovery upon pretty firm
foundation. 7afrTG;f
Laveran called the para sites Oscillaria
malariae. Machiafava and Cell, two
italian observers, suggested the term
''Plasmodium malariae," and it was
adopted by the profession throughout the
world. 1t is now being replaced by the
word haematozoa, meaning parasite
which lives in the blood
How does the malarial parasite get into
the blood of man ? 1t has been claimed that
it is conveyed by drinking water, but
this has been pretty we'll disproved. A
number of healthy persons have purposely
drank water from marshes in malarial
districts without contracting the disease,
and quite good number Of Italian OBJ
servers have drunk freely OF the water
from the VIGOROUSLY unhealthy Pom tine
marshes at Rome without i'll effects. Dew
of malarial regions has also been drunk
without untoward results. Healthy men
have been fed the blood of malaial
patients known to contain the parasite
without producing the disease In them.
The general opinion Of the profession is
that the haematozoa cannot enter the
blood through the mucous mem brane of
the stomach or intestines, but is killed by
1t is maintained by a number of observ-
ers that air is the medium of infection,
but how the parasite gets into the air
and floats about Is not explained. 1t Is
tender micro-nrganism, and SO far as we
know does not exist in a dried state. In
fact, it lives but short time after re-
moval from the body. If 1t remains in a
moist condition it cannot very we'll be
taken up as dust and blown about in the
air. 1t cannot fly about, hence 1t must
stay pretty close to the earth The theory
of the air us a medium of infection is
not at all convincing.
Malarial fever has been given to healthy
men by injecting into them blood from a
malarial patient. The fever produced was
sicklman suffered, and the blood of both
patients contains the same variety of
haematozoa. For example: If o healthy
man be injected with blood from malar-
ial patient that has had fever OF the
every other day type, he will have fever
every other day. 1t is pretty clear, then.
that in order to produce malarial fever
in a.healthy man the malarial haematozoa
must not be fed to him or blown into his
nostrils, but injected under his skin.
Now, we'll as we know the life history of
the malarial haematozoa In the blood of
man, we know absolutely nothing OF its
habits or life history outside of the body.
A vast number of the highest traind
psychologists, chemists and physicians
have tried in svery seeming possible way
to make the parasitic grow outside OF the
body, and although an infinite variety of
media have been empl Dyed, no one has SO
far succeeded. In 1894, DR.. Patrick Man
son, an English physician, came to the
conclusion that since man can be given
malarial fever in no other way than by
injecting the haematozoa beneath his
cI1i Gonna incact which oIIcEc tho b10nd
of man and flies about must be the culprit
that plays the trick. He claimed 1t was
the ubiquitous mosquito.
DIR. Manson is of the belief that the
haematozoa can live in the blood of the
mosq II ito as we'll as in that of man, so
that when mosquito splits up a mans
skin with her double-edged stiletto
pre- paratory to sucking his blood, she
leaves port of entrance wide open for
the haematoZoa to pass from the mosquito
to the man during the act of sucking
say MRS" nosq uito adv isedly, because
the male mosquito is a harmless trouba.
dour, who never dreams of gaf1ing us;
but the female. dulcet siren, is desper-
ately blood thirsty The English physi-
clans quartered in the tropics have taken
up DR.. Manson's theory and accumulat-
ed a vast amount Of evidence that is very
damaging Testimony against the mos
quito.
Now comes the great German bacteriolo
gist, Dr. Koch, rs a champion of the mos
quito theory, SO that the chances for Mrs.
Mosquito to escape conviction are slim.
DIR. Koch is not only the grea test living
bacteriologist but one of the greatest
scientists that ever lived; for combined in
him Is untiring, painstaking industry,
with that exquisitely close reasoning
faculty, coupled with the vivid imagina-
ton. which enables the true scientist to
follow his discoveries to the very verge of
their consequences. When such man
lends the weight of his opinion to
theory, it is we'll worthy of profound con-
sideration.
DR.. Koch has recently returned to Ger
many from South Africa, where he was
sent to study certain diseases of domestic
animals Upon his return he was invited
by the German Colonial Society of Berlin
to give an account of his observations be-
fore an audience that included some OF
the best medical minds of Germany. His
talk was informal, and most of it was
devoted to malaria. 1t was appropriate,
because the existence of malaria in Ger
man Ea st Africa makes the work OF colo
nization there extremely difficult. he
distinctly stated that it was his belief
that malaria fever is spread by mosqui-
foes and not by water or air. He found