Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-17
MALARIA AAQIPH0ID.
Both Traceable Shelly to
Country Sources.
IMPORTED 70 acITIEs
CARRIED ALMOST
EXCLUSIVELY BY INSECTS.
Important Announcement by Agricul-
tural Department-Three Diseases
Due to Flies and Mosquitoes.

the Department of Agriculture has pre-
pared in the form of farmers bulletin
clear, direct description Of the manner in
which insects transmit disease and of the
preventive measures which lie within the
reach of every American agriculturalist
This bulletin is entitled How Insects At
feet Health in Rural Districts" and can
be had for the asking. 1t Is filled with val
liable information about malaria and ty-
phoid fever for urbanite and suburbanite
alike and is expected to prove one of the
most practical and valuable publicat atoms of
the department.
In very many parts of the country the
farming population has to contend with at
least two diseases which are preventable,"
DR.. Howard says by way of introduction.
These are malaria and typhoid fever Both
of these diseases are transferred or may be
transferred by Understandable by certain
mosquitoes and typhoid fever by the COM
mon. house fly, or other flies
The bulletin then continues to the effect
that both malaria and typhoid are
very largely country diseases and that
neither is often found in cities except
through contamination from country dis
tricts or from the existence in the suburbs
OF disease producing conditions such as
prevail widely in the country. DR.. Howard
then proceeds in part as follows:
Lie 0ouICeS ol 1ypuO1O.
'Cities well supplied with water from a
reservoir especially a filter reservoir, which
possesses a modern sewage system, and in
which modern plumbing is universal, de-
rive typhoid fever only from the following
sources: Contaminated country milk, the
return of people in the autumn from the
less sanitary country, and lack of care of
persons who have contracted typhoid from
either of the first two sources.
In the country, however. conditions are
different. Each country house or each
house in small village has it's own water
supply. usually in the shape of a well;
the cattle get water from the streams;
drainage containing virulent typhoid germs
may enter the streams, be carried for
some distance and be taken into the stom-
achs of cattle all along the course of
the stream, or the germs may be carried
by underground drainage directly into the
wells from which drinking water is gained;
or certain flies may breed and fly, fairly
reeking with diseased bearing filth, to the
kitchens and tables of nearby houses.
When we consider that active typhoid
germs may be given out for some time by
persons who have not developed typhoid
fever sufficiently that it may be recog-
nized, and that they may alsoybe given out
for some time after patients have been
apparently cured of the disease, it is per-
fectly obvious that IN the country lack. of
care readily accounts for outbreaks of ty-
phoid fever from any of the causes men
toned.
Protection Against Disease.
"Of course it will be said that the entire
water supply of a city may become contain
mated at or Immediately above it's reservoir
supply. This contamination Is from country
sources and might be obviated either in
general manner by the. establishment of
reservoir filtering plant. in a special
manner by individual householders by the
constant and thorough use of house filters.
In cities possessing a common water supply
and modern sanitary plumbing there is no
excuse for the presence of typhoid in the
household.
Even the city water must be filtered,
which can be done by the use of any one
of the cheap filters now on the market; the
milk which is drunk by children must be
steriliZed, and persons returning to the
city, after contracting typhoid fever in the
country, must be dsinfected with utmost
care. These three measures, Systematically
followed, will result in the abolition of
typhoid fever within the city boundaries.
so much. for cities. In the country the
matter is somewhat more difficult and i'm
munty from malaria and typhoid depends
largely upon the individual householder.
Such immunity may be obtained, but only
as a result of intelligent care.
The old idea that malaria is caused by
breathing the miaSma of SWampS has been
exploded. Malaria is contracted only
through the bites of mosquitoes of the
genus ancpheles. The cause of human ma
1aria is the growth and development within
the red blood cells of a very minute para
site organism belonging to the lowest
group of the animal kingdom-the group
protocol. or one-celled animals, which in
cludes those minute creatures known as
amoebas and others, and which live in the
water or in damp sands or moss, inside
the bodies of other animals parasites.
This parasite reproduces in the body by
subdividing, eventually bursting the red
blood cells and entering the blood serum as
mass of spores.
so far present knowledge goes this
is the only way in which people become ma
larous. In order to avoid this result it is
necessary to avoid the bites of malarial
mosquitoes, and il therefore becomes i'm
portant to know the differences between the
malarial and the more harmless mosquitoes
and the conditions under which the mala-
rial forms breed.
Mosquitoes Which Transmit Malaria.
There are very many mosquitoes which
have not yet been proven to carry any dis
ease. In fact the majority of mosquitoes
are supposed to be harmless except for the
irritation caused by their punctures. The
commonest of all forms belong to the genus
culeX. These include the mosquitoes most
commonly breeding in rain water barrels
and chance transient pools 1t will be
noticed that culeX has clear wings, while
anopheles has wings which are more
less spotted. Further, it has been observed
that when Culex is resting upon a wall it
appears more or less humpbacked that is to
say the head and the beak are not in the
same plane with the body and wings. but
projec' at a n angie toward the surface of the
wall, the body and wings being parallel with
the wall. With anopheles, however, the
head and beak are in practically the same
place with the body andnthe body itself is
usually placed at angle with the wall,
and especially when resting Upon a hori-
zontal wall. such as the ceiling of a room,
the body of anopheles fs at1a very great
angle with the surface. y. stt
I'VE have in this country thEee species of
the malaral genus anepheles. Two are
found nearly all over the cotritry but the
third is a more southern species, although
1t has been found as farnertff as the south
shore of Long Island rov
The breeding placesorof the harmless
mosquitoes are more nurner6ds and more
varied than the breeding places of the ma
larial mosquitoes. Anophetes; however, are
found under many divers conditions. They
are found, as stated, in istillo Side pools of
small streams in the swampyopools at the
margins of larger ponds. in stagnant water
In bitches, In the beds of old canals, in the
still water at the sides of springs, and oc-
n a G a 1yy oh III