The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-06-08
ABOUT MOSQUITOES.
Arp Questions If They Are Deadly
as Scientists Claim.
Doctors Say the Little Winged Pests
Are Responsible fer Spread of
Malaria The POntine
Marshes Near Rome.

Dul IL seems TO me tnaJ the mOueTu
doctors attach too much Importance
| to germ theory. They are trying to
cure all sorts Of diseases by eXtermin-
ating germs, microbes, bacteria, and
| other invisible infusoria. Maybe they
| were not intended to be eXterminated,
but are part of the economy of ma
ture. There are bolts in horses
stomach and wolves in a cows back
and fieas on dog for some useful pur-
pose, and il may be that these invisible
germs are useful part of our Or
ganism. We eat them in food and
drink them in water and breathe them
in the air, but still 1 reckon there are
poisonous, infectious kind that do
produce disease and pestilence. l was
Illuminating about this from having
read in London paper an account of
the experiment now being made by the
British Medical society to discover the
true cause of malaria in the Pontine
marshes that for centuries has proved
slow and certain death to the poor
peasantry who work there to make
4 living. These Campagnean marshes
lie adjacent to Rome and cover a ter
ritory 25 miles long and ten miles wide
and are wonderfully productive, giving
three crops a year, but the malaria
soon pales and sickens the strongest
men, and they have to stop their work
and go to the hills to die. To discover
and remove the cause has been the
problem of the ages. Three hundred
l. 4 l.. l.,
solid land and the Appian way was built
upon it. Slowly and surely the water
encroached upon the land and sub
merged it, destroying the Appian way.
the aqueducts and arches. Julius
Caesar and Augustus Caesar spent i'm
mense sums to drain them, but without
avail. They were finally given up to
the labor of the slaves, and Pliny tells
of one man, Cecilius Claudius, who
owned 4,116 of them, all males, who
worked there and were not allowed to
marry. Their cruel fate was to work
out brief life and die. About 125 years
ago Pope Plus VI. made another effort
to drain the marshes, but failed, and
since then all efforts and all hope have
Deen abandoned.
But now a new theory comes up be-
fore the scientific school of MEDICINE
and has agitated the medical savants all
over the world. 1t is claimed that a
malarial climate does not produce
mosquitoes, but the mosquitoes pro-
duce malaria. and it is their bites or
stings and suction of the blood of the
peasantry and thereby inoculating
them with poison and producing ma
laria that eventually wastes the life
away This theory has found many
strong advocates in London and Paris
and Berlin, and now they are preparing
to prove it. The English government
is having a wire gauze house built, and
it is to be placed in the middle of the
Pontine marshes, and two English
physicians have volunteered to live in
il for a year or moIe to test the effect
of the climate secure from the mos
quito. Just think of that! Living in a
wire gauze house right in the midst of
the most noXious miasmatic climate in
the world, and all for the sake of sci
ence and humanity. If they prove their
lnGOTN lHtl lHtN Will CEASE " use
quinine for malaria, but will build wire
houses and wear wire cowls or hoods
over their heads and faces and fence
out the mosquitoes and turn their next
attention to exterminating them.
They say it is big thing, financially,
for there are 2O00,000 acres in those
marshes and will be worth if they sue
I nd that ms los
S.. 600, 900 900 for Rome and the pope.
But still l am dubious. l don't be-
lieve the mosquito introduces malaria
into the human system. His proboscis
draws out blood, but puts precious
little in. The germ theory has be-
come a scientific fad and has not yet
been proven. The doctors all went
mad about Pasteur and his inoculat-
ing virus. but that has subsidized and
we never hear of it now. Folks are
too ready to believe any new thing.
Appendicitis raised a mighty rumpus
for awhile and every sick man mag.
ined he had it, and it must be cut
off. but the disease is now doubted
and the use of the knife almost aban-
doned. Just so folks take up with
new doctrines of politics and religion.
DR.. Vance, of Nashville. said not long
ago that il shrewd. smart man with
a lively tongue was to declare that it
was necessary for salvation that a
man should jump off the roof of
house onto the pavement he would
find followers who would be jumping
all over the country breaking their
arms and legs and necks on this new
road to Heaven. What upon earth |