Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1900-10-23


AS far back, in fact, as the begin
ming of the Christian Era, writer's
touched upon the relation of the
mosquito to malaria, and among
the early American writer's along
these lines may be mentioned
Mitchell, of Philadelphia: Mott, of
New Orleans (in l74S); and King,
of Washington, (who published a
pamphlet in 1889, giving uumer-
Gus plausible reasons for sustain
ing the theory,
The mosquito theory has been
continuously studied, not only by
Laveran, in 1891 (he who discov-
cred the malarial plasmodium);
Pfeiffer, who evolved the specific
germ of la grippe, as well as Big
mani, but the great Koch, whose.
name will ever be associated with
the practical demonstration of the
cause of tuberculosis, has for sew
eral years devoted much time and
study to this branch of germ life.
A recent writer observes:
"The fact that the malariaI par
asite is paludal in it's habits, and
that the mosquito is a blood sucker
and also paludal in habit, is eX-
tremely suggestive of this connec-
tion. The idea, however, did not
take definite form until Patrick
Manson, in his Goulstonian lectures
delivered in 1896, set forth a def
mite hypothesis, based on certain
well-establlshed facts, namely, that
the malarlal parasite possessed a
flaggellating phase, that this phase
is developed from the mature para
site, that it is evolved only when
the parasite is outside The human
body, that the hagella, when form
ed break away from the parent
parasite, and that, when free, the
flagella were capable of living as
independent organisms. He was
thus led to believe that the hagella
was the extracorporeal phase IN
the life history of parasites. AS it
was impossible or the form In which
this organism originated to escape
from the human body by itself, it
was necessary to invoke the assist
ance of some outside agency. The
most probrable agent was the mos
quito, and Manson supposed that
the faggellated body was sucked,
in it's latent form, into the stomach
of the mosquito and developed
therein. The faggellae then broke
away from the central sphere, and
in virtue of their locomotive power
traversed the blood in the mosqui-
to's stomach, penetrated the stom-
ach wall, entered some cell and
started the "outside-of- the-body
life of the malariul parasite. Man
son still believed, however, that
malaria could be air or water
borne, for he supposed that on
the death of the mosquito the para
site was liberated, and either in
hailed from the air or carried into
the system in drinking water
All these theories regarding ma
laria are most interesting, but the
facts of most vital import are those
related to the cure of the disease.
The aestivo-autumnael paraitess
are energetically at work every
where now.
Reports from South American
countries are confirming definitely
the fact, already observed and an
nounced by many eminent medical
men throughout America, that the
synthetic product organic chemis-
try, phenalgin, is OF great value IN
fighting these parasites. From
FIVE to fifteen grains of phenalgin
may be given every two to four
hours, Inside of forty-eight hours
the average attack of malaria will
be aborted. Not only will this of
course of treatment be antagonis-
tic to the poisons of malaria but
will soothe and relieve the distress
ing symptoms accompanying it, re-
ducing the fever, allaying the
aches and pains and causing a
restful slep.
Nowhere does malaria assume
more virulent form than in the trop-
ical countries, and when we have