The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-28
VAL AR|A(
MOSQUITO
John Bull Now After
That Pest.
A CAMPAIGN NEAR ROME
Two English Doctors viii be Sent
There to Live and be
Bitten.

LONDON. May 10.-On the first of Nav
the British Government will begin as
strange an enterprise as ever was record
ed in it's history. On or about that dav
il will send two men to the deadliest snot
on earth with instructions to STAY there
all summer and see if it kills them. If
they come back unframed then the
worlds most fatal disease next to con-
sumption will be at the mercy of science
If 1t does Kill them-well, the Govern
ment will pay the funeral expenses and
an interesting theory will have to be
proved all over again. Joseph Chamber
lain is the liveliest and most enterprisine
man in the Cabinet, whatever one NAV
think of his South African policy, and it
is his colonial department that is making
TINS extraordinary experiment in which
the right honorable gentleman from Bir-
mingham is taking keen personal interest
The plan was suggested by DR.. Patrick
Manson, medical adviser to the Colonial
once, the man who first laid at the door
of a particular brand of mosquito the
charge of killing off by malarial fever
more of the worlds population every year
than cholera or bubonic plague or any of
tue other scourges, except consumption
that carry human beings to the grave in
armies instead of one by one. Major Ron
aid Ross, also in the Government ser
vice, carried on DIR. Manson's inyestiga-
tons and proved the mosquito theory to
IN" satisfaction of most men of science by
his recently published report. But the
Government wanted to clinch the thing
make the proof so thorough and popular
that every one could be sure of it and
could make use of it. Hence this final
BE monStration.
The first step was to find the deadIies.
inhabited place on the globe. That prov
ed TO be the Roman Campagna, where no
man can stay on a summer night without
contracting malaria. Then, from the
London School of Tropical Medicine re-
Gently established by the Colonial Office
sion-Dr. Sambon and DR. Lowe And the
nnal step was to build a moSquito-proof
house, which the men could take with
them, and in which they will stay in The
hours when the malaria bearing mosuui-
toes are about If the two men manage
TO I'VE ana Keep their health where no
one else has succeeded in doing So and
yet nave no advantage over the others ex-
cept protection against mosquitoes, then
the case against the mosquito will be con-
Sidered complete and the Government
will set about prosecuting the pest wher-
ever he exists in the colonies and will
give all possible aid to other countries to
do the same, with the expectation that
malarial fever will be wiped out and mil
lions of human lives saved.
When | asked DR.. Manson yesterday
concerning the Campagna, he said: Its
a stretch of low country some seven miles
from Rome, and known to all experts on
the subject of disease as the deadliest
spot in the world. 1t consists of a roll
ing waste of barren soil, dotted with oc-
casional pa tcheS of stubble and with pools
OF stagnant water that comes from the
mountains and volcanic hills round about
Here mosquitoes abound. To compare
the mortality of the Cafnpagna with that
of other unhealthy places in the world is
difficult, because it is practically uninhab-
tied. In the hills live poor race of folk
who raise cattle, and these men come
down TO the Campagna in the spring and
plant crops. 1t is when they return in
the fall to reap their harvest not a rich
one, that they contract the malaria that
Kills them off in shoals. On the Campag-
ma itself few poor wretches live, live
as long as the country let's them-eVery
one of them with swollen skins, bullying
eyes and enlarged livers; every one vast
ing away with disease They exist in
miserable huts built of mud and matched
with grass. Rome" he went on, lis an
island, an island of health in a of
disease. Why? All, there we have the
mosquito. In the Campagna he has the
turbid pools from which to drink and man
kind to furnish him food, so, content with
those, he keeps away from Rome Con-
sequently you are secure from disease I'M
til you get without the walls. But go and
talk 10 DIR. Sambon: he knows all about
the Campagna."
DIR. l.. w. Sambon was found in the
Natural History Museum in South Ken
sington, surrounded 10y a wonderful ar
ray Of botanical specimens. with which he
was working. My companion and l
Fee just like guinea pigs he said. You
know, were going over there simply to
be Experimental on; we shall not be al
lowed to take any quinine or other pre-
caution against ilinesS-only against mos
quitoes. We are to mix freely with the
people in the Campagna, and practically
al Of them have malaria. They are try
ing 20 reclaim some of the less infected
parts Of the plain, and these people are
laborcrs. They're not ADMINISTRATIONS
won't go there-but peasants from Nor
mandy and the south Of France, who come
here great, strong, luSty fellows, but last
only little while, dying or becoming so
weak from disease That they have to go
home. And they never get well. That's
the worst of malaria; it comes on slowly,
clings to man, and when it finally goes
leaves him open to all sorts of diseases. In
Italy 100000 suffer from it every year. OF
these 15,O0O die, and this is an enormous
number considering that We have a spe-
cifc treatment for this fever-7.75 for ev-
cry 1000 attacked.
1T is in the center of the delectable To- !
cality that I've described the doctor con-
tinued, that we shall settle down in the ,
mosquito-proof house that is /
now being made after a plan furnished (
by the Government by a firm of iron
workers. 1t is of doow with a roof that
the windows from the suns rays, the
floors covered with an inodorous telling,
and the windows, doors, chimneys, VENT
lators and all other openings protected
with mosquito netting made of wonderful .
~ thin wire. The doors can be shut
twice as quickly an ordinary door. The I
house has two bedrooms, a sittng-room, /
a kitchen and a lavatory. 1t will be kept
IN order by two Italian servants that we
have recruited from the neighborhood (
We shall get our water from the wells :
near by, boiling ii to avoid dysentery-Wa- /
er never conveys malaria"
DR.. Sambon says that. although tho .
mosquito nominally appears particularly
Industrious, ne doesn't by any means
work all the time He is denizen 0
he night, starting about his affairs "a
unset and turning in regularly when tn 7
rCre active part of mankind is getting up
Thus most colonists and travellers get ma I
ria by sleeping without taking precau !
lions against this insect when he is oI
he warpath and seeking whom he may
robe. So the doctors will quit thei
1ouse when their enemy is off duty only
in the daytime-and then they will wear
loves. They propose to go into Rom /
requently-a railway passes through th' Z
Campagna-to work in the laDoratories I
here, taking care, however, not to ven
tUre out until a full hour after sunrise !
when the mosquito goes to roost or tc /
'tay out later than an hour before sun
set. lest some of the foe should be stir
ring early. 1t is thought there is no dan /
ger of their being stung by some bibu- /
Gus mosquito staggering home from th' |
III hon he hIrG al.