The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-03-27
MARYLAND And Malaria.
(FrCm the Baltimore Herald }

| (FrCm the Baltimore Herald
A statement was made to the Morning
Herald that Baltimore was the most mala-
rial city in the United States. Coupled
with it was the charge that the reason
Maryland did not receive more settlers
was because malaria prevailed to an alb
normal extent in the greater part Of its
area. In various forms and degrees these
accusations agains' Baltimore and Mary
land are made and published. They do
harm, Notwithstanding that they are un-
true. In order to obtain the exact facts
the Morning Herald put the matter before
DR.. John S. Fulton, the very capable
secretary of the state board of health, and
we direct the attention of everyone to his
reply, which follows:
Baltimore in former days was often
said by her own citizens to be "a "malariaP'
CITY, but l never heard before that Balti-
more is the most malarial city in the
United States. Some Of the best studies
ever made in America on the subject of
malaria have been made in Baltimore,
The material for study is not abundant.
but the special students are here. So far
as the disease is concerned these studies
could have been made just as " ell in New
York or Boston, and in many Southern
and Western cities material for such
studies is vastly more abundant.
The figures of the United States census
for 1900 show that out of every 1000
deaths reported in each Of the following
four cities there were charged to malaria
in New Orleans 81, in St. Louis 10, in
Boston 6, in Baltimore 5. The whole
number of deaths charged to malaria in
the four cities was as follows: New
Orleans 227, St. Louis 1874, Boston 81,
Baltimore SO.
Ask any up to date physician if he be-
lieves that fifty eight persons ever died in
Baltimore in any one year from malaria,
and he viii tell you that in this city of
600, 900 inhabitants there is not enough
malaria to kill fifty people in twenty five
years. Ihave seen in my professional life
but two deaths from malaria, both sailors
who were infected in the West Indies.
Here, and in Boston also, the death rate
from malaria represents an ancient delus-
ion which clings to the minds of few half
educated physicians. The deaths are real
ly due to causes which the doctors fail to
recognize.
In Maryland, outside of Baltimore,
malaria claims rank among causes of
death equal to that of Boston, six in each
one thousand deaths. Malaria is, how.
ever. a cause of sickness in several parts
of Maryland. These areas are pretty we'll
known, and correspond to the dstribu
ton of the anopheles mosquito. Two
such areas are found within twenty miles
o. Baltimore city, and practically all the
cases which from the basis of the excel
lent studies made here came from one or
the other of these two areas.
There is no profit, however, in COM
pairing Maryland with other states, nor
any satisfaction in the evidence that we
have less malaria than our neighbors.
The death records seem to give us decid
ed advantage, but in Maryland and every
where else along the Atlantic coast,
throughout the Mississippi belt, and on
the Gulf coast, malaria is an important
cause of sickness, and ought to be treated
as a problem in public hygiene.
JOHN S. FULTON.