The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-07-14
ABOUT MOSQUITOES.
Arp Questions If They Are Deadly
as Scientists Claim.
Doctors Say the LIttIe winged Pests
Are Responsible for Spread of
Malaria - The POntine
Marshes Near Rome.

but it seems to me that the modern
doctors attach too much Importance
to a germ theory. They are trying to
cure all sorts Of diseases by extermin-
ating germs, microbes, bacteria, and
other invisible infusoria. Maybe they
were o intended to be exterminated,
but are a part of the economy Of ma
ture. There are bolts in a horses
stomach and wolves in a cows back
and feas on a dog for some useful pur-
pose, and it may be that these invisible
germs are a 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
a poisonous, infectious kind that do
produce disease and pestilence. 1 was
Eliminating about this from having
read in a London paper an recount 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
a slow and certain death to the poor
~peasantry who work there to make
a living. These Campagnean marshes
lie adjacent to Rome and cover a ter
ritOry rs miles long and ten miles wide
und are wonderfully productive, giving
three crops q 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
years before Christ these marshes were
Folidland 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 n 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 a 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
been abandoned.
But now a new theory m up be-
fore the scientific school of medicine
andhas agitated the medical savants all
over the world. 1t is claimed that
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 i~noculating
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 more to test the effect
Of the climate secure from tho 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
theory then they will cease TO 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 discriminating them.
They say it is a big thing, financially,
for there are 100000 acres in those
marshes and will be worth if they sue
coed $1,000 an acre, and that makes
$4,000, 100000 for Rome and the pope.
But still I am dubious. I don't be-
heve 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 imag-
ined he had it., and it must be cut
of, 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 a shrewd, smart man with
a lively tongue was to declare that 81
was necessary for salvation that q
man should jump of the roof OF a
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
these Mormon elders and proselytera
expect to accomplish Is a mystery to
me, and I am amazed that any per
son with common sense can be fooled
by them. They ought to be ~scourged
out Of this country. They break up
the peace of some families and give
nothing in exchange but a spurious.
contemplate religion that Is an in,
suit to our Maker and the Christian
religion. They T religious tramps
and / rejoice when I hear of the PEG.
pie driving them out OF the settle.
ment with whips and stones and
; thresh poles. I've been knowing and
| watching these Mormons for so years
and never knew any good of them