The Washington times., 1901-10-13

uals from the bites of mosquitoes: and
| lastly TO protect those sick from malaria
| from the bites of mosquitoes to prevent
IN the sick room, the dissemination of in
fected mosquitoes, and TO treat CAREFUL,
aII cases subject TO relapse.
o,i ~, smith points out that the use OF
"a Vn oi stasnant pools is a palliative. not
" pe compared with drainage, which per
| Hdhentiy relieves the source Of danger
/ Naturally, however. he does not paw much
/ attention to the claim that when Kerosene
/ Is used upon puddles to destroy the mos
Z quito larvae the mosquitoes themselves
/ become so loaded with Kerosene that
I When they fly into the lamp at night they
! become ignited and are converted into
dangerous sparks liable to set fire to
! dwellings. This he says, lis one OF
! the arguments which the rural genius
| is apt to breed, and which are so inju-
rlous to the work of public health au-
Passing from this point. DR.. Smith ad-
Nises the proper screening of houses and
that people generally who live in malarial
! regions should be informed of the danger
OF the open air after sundown. Recent
~, he says, the italian investigators
nave published some very striking statis-
ties concerning the value of such pre-
VentlVe methods In countries that are sat
| urated with malaria. Different men of
the national malaria commission under
TOOK to protect eXperimentally the men
who were compelled to live along the rail-
road tracks of the different Italian rail-
malarial swamps. They personally super
vfsed the experiments, provided the
houses in which these railrSad -.idcials
lived with proper screens, provided double
doors, and supervised the lives of the peo-
pie in such a way that they could not be
exposed at night. The statistics which
they published for the year lS99-1900 show
that fully 30 per cent Of such people re-
manned free from malaria in some Of the
worst parts of Italy, and that of those
people who were not protected purposely
nearly 80 per cent suffered from malaria
during the season. The method of pro-
tecting people by keeping away the in
sects in some mechanical way or other
is thus very valuable means, especially
in places where there is always danger of
contracting malaria"
The last matter taken up is that of i'm
munity. Koch in his African studies
found that in some of the villages where
malaria prevailed the children all have
malaria, but as these children g-iw up
they no longer have chills, and their
blood no longer contains the parasites in
demonstrable numbers. As adults they
are no longer susceptible to it. The same
phenomenon has been notgi in the case
OF cattle. though strangely enough, they
always carry the parasite in their blood,
which Is therefore infectious to those
we in this country do not become i'm
mune,' says Dr. Smith. lis because, as
soon as malaria has developed within us,
we are treated and the parasite dies.
Our system is not permitted to undergo
the peculiar influences o1 the parasite
during long periods of tiEle, which leads
to immunity. so that after a patient is
treated for one attack of malaria he may
contract that disease again another year:
he may contract 1t as long as he lives be-
cause he is cured at once, the malarial
parasite has no chance of modifying his
system. and consequently he is always
susceptible. l think it is this fact which
has led physicians to speak of malaria
as a disease toward which we cannot
acquire immunity. There is no difference
between malaria and other diseases in
that respect, excepting in this, that it re-
quires a very long time and it probably
demands a very youthful system to with
stand malaria. before full immunity is
acquired nunity, in other words, in
this part of the world, is an impossible
ideal. One has to be native African for
it to be of any use to him.