Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1905-03-11
MOSQUITO AND MALARIA.
Their Relations Discussed at the Inter
national Medical Congress.

No medical expert now doubts ina
malarial fevers are caused by the pres
ence of parasite, first identif1ed by
Laveran. Almost the. only questions
on which there is not yet universal
agreement relate to the share which
the mosquito has in conveying the par
asite from one human victim to anoth'
er. The fact that mosquitoes some
times exist where there is no malaria
is susceptible of easy explanation. The
mosquitoes may belong to the wrong
genus or may not have had chance
to become infected. Then, too, the res
idents may have learned to exclude
them with screens.
A more puzzling circumstance Is
that doctors sometimes observe an at
tack of malaria when few or no mos
quitoes are about. This point was dis
cussed at length at the recent interna-
tional medical congress in Spain, of
which the New York Medical News
gives an interesting report. Some of
the physicians expressed the opinion
that the parasites did not always dis
appear from a patients system wheD
tinued to develop there, one genera
ton after another completing the cycle
of existence in a human body. Such
persons were liable to have another at
tack without being freshly bitten. DIR.
Ascoli of Rome, for instance, report
ed that malaria in epidemic form often
appeared in Italy in June, notwith-
standing the fact that at this time
there could be but few infected mos
quitoes Most of these patients
showed, however, an antecedent ma
larial history, proving, he thought, the
fact that the recurring attacks within
the individual were what kept malaria
in readiness to infect then young mos
quitoes.
1t does not clearly appear that the
congress considered the plan for fight
ing malaria which has found the most
favor with American and English san
itarians, and which is by far the most
radical. Prevention of breeding by
depriving the mosquitoes of convenient
places wherein to lay their eggs seems
to have been ignored. According to
the Medical News, the majority of the
delegates attached the most impor-
lance to the use of screens to prevent
the young mosquitoes from becoming
contaminated. DR.. Ascoli thought that
if that system of dealing with patients
were followed as thoroughly and care
! fully as isolation is observed in small
poX lit would soon limit the trans
mission of the disease and render cpl
denies in low mosquito breeding lands
almost unknown" He would employ
netting not only to protect healthy peo-
pie from mosquitoes, but also to pro
tect healthy mosquitoes from infect
ed persons.
While accepting the theory that the
genus anapheles is mainly responsible
for spreading malaria, DR.. Hauser, OF
Madrid believed that the parasite
could reach a human subject otherwise
than by the bite of a living mosquito
He thought that this germ might live
in humid earth under favorable condi
tons, and that the germs might flour
ish in regions free from mosquitoes
The inhalation from dried marshes OF
the drinking of water infected by the
bodies of dead mosquitoes could infect
and mosquitoes dying in marshes Sc
free the organism which infects maj
through the medium of the air.