The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1900-05-03
ABOUT MOSQUITOES.
Ths Little Pests and How They
Disseminate Malaria.
PARASITE AND ITS HISTORY

Virginian- Pilot
1t had long been known that any
! continued prevalence of malarial fever
was attended by the occurrence of ex-
tenslve changes, apparently of a de-
generative character, in the physical
condition of the blood, and these
changes, says the London Times, when
they were made the subjects of investi-
cation by the aid OF modern micro
scopes, we're traced to the presence of
parasites as invariable concomitants
of the disease. Blood owes its
color to the presence of In
Vulnerable minute bodies called
its red corpuscles, bodies 50 minute
and so numerous that single cubic
miiimetre of blood contains an average
of about five millions of them, and it
was within these corpuscles that the
parasites were disco;ered. Malarial
fevers are characterized by the definite
exacerbations and lntermissions, and it
soon became apparent that these were
severally coincident, in point OF time,
with Successive stages of the life hiss
tory of the parasite, each attack of
fever denoting the Matching of a new
brood, and presenting the successive
stages of shlvering, CT heat, and OF
sweating, coincidentalIy with their
growth and development, at the con.
cluslon of which each corpuscle which
had been invaded by them perished,
and its functions IS a carrier of oxygen
to the tissues was abolished.
Unlike the now familiar vegetable
parasites collectively called microbes,
by which SO many other diseases are
occasioned, the parasite OF malaria be-
longs to the animal kingdom, but,
like the microbes, its numbers in
crease with amazing rapidity. Until
they reach to a considerable amount,
the parasite would not be productive
OF serious symptoms, but by the time
that an attack of fever Is fairly estab-
sished, these numbers often amount to
something like $50, ,O0O.0 600, ana thence
would range upward to 100000, 600.
1t had long been known that Quinlne
was the most poten. of all remedies
for sgae, end Its administration at all
sorts OF times and in all sorts of doses
had gradually led 10 the experimental
determination of the conditions of it's
greatest efficacy, but prior to the dis
covery of the parasite, it was regarded
as being essentially "anti-periodlc" In
its effects-that Is to say, as exerting
rythmical recurrence of morbid pneu-
monla. The discovery of the parasite
led to the further discovery that quin
Inc cured agne simply by poisoning
the parasite, and that it was most
effective for this purpose when given
in such doses and In such away as to
be present in the blood In sufficient
quantity during a certain period OF
their growth. But it seldom killed
them all, and more usually left a few
individuals, perhaps more or less lam
gushing, but still living and repre-
ducing their kind, and capable of civ
ing rise to fresh attack OF fever, even
after the lapse of many months.
The next stage in the investigation
was to ascertain through what channel
the malaria parasite became introduced
into the human body !; and DR.. Patrick
Manson, who had previously traced
another form OF Injection to the mos
quito, was, We believe, the first to sug-
gest that this insect was the most
probable delinquent. The inyestiga-
ton Of Major Ross, to whose letter
claiming priority we were glad to give
insertion Wednesday, finally establish
ed the correctness Of the hypothesis
The particular mosquito concerned is
of the species known to naturallsts as
Anopheles, and the e>iderce of the
crime is complete. He, or rather she,
for the ladies OF the family are the sole
offenders, Is furnished with sallvary
glands which secrete the poison which
she 1njects into her bites. A female
may be hatched from a captured larva
and led for the first time by being per-
mitted to bite man suffering from
fever. She will swallow one OF more OF
the parasites or their spores as part OF
her meal, aud, il kept in confinement,
their life within her body may be OBJ
served They ultimately find their
way from her stomach to her salivary
glands which secrete poison with the
roison into the blood of the next vic
tim whom she may select or may be
furnished with. The process can be
watched from beginning to end, and it
constitutes chain of morbid action
Of the most interesting and curious
character, which at the same time
completely clears up the whole ques-
ton of the nature and causatlon Of the
fa~,