The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-05-09
The Story of Malaria.

carry these parasites almost constant
ly in their blood AS the children
reach maturity, IL they have not sue
cumbed to the poison before then,
this early incubation seems to pro-
cure them immunity as adults, for
very few adult natives are subject to
malarial fevers in the way that Eu-
ropeans are. While they are young,
however, the disease decimates them
in large numbers.
The next chapter in the story OF
malaria had to reveal where these
protozoan parasites live In external
nature, and how and by what agency
they effect their entrance into the
human body. The older theories as
sumed that stagnant water made a
home for them, and that they were
inhaled in the mists and vapors
which rose from the marsh, and pos
sibly by the drinking OF foul water.
But experiments made In trying to
develop the parasites from stagnant
water failed to give the supposed re-
suits. Then the mosquito theory,
existent and in vogue for some CEN
turtles, was revived, and trials which
were made, Independently of each
other, added strength to the belief
that Infection came from the bites of
the insect. In 1894 Major Ross was
told by DR.. Manson (now Sir Patrick
Manson) of his own theory concern
ing the ability of parasites to trans
fer themselves from one species of
animal to another, and he commenced
to make critical examination for him
self. When. after two and half
years of experimenting, he was on
the point of giving up in despair, he
was startled on examining a new
species of mosquito to discover In It's
tissues the very bodies he was in
search of. Before he could obtain
formal proof his researches were in
terfered with by his being ordered to
a place where there were little or no
malaria. The following year the
Government of India placed him on
special duty for the continuance of
his study, and then in few months
he was able to establish his conclu-
sions, which were to the effect that
when mosquitoes of particular spe-
cies suck the blood of infected men,
apimals or birds, they draw in with it
the parasites of malaria, and these,
living and growing in them, produce
spores which find their way down the
proboscis into the blood of their next
victim, injecting him. Thus the mos
quito takes the parasite from one in
fected person, and after a week or
more conveys it into the blood of
another. probably quite healthy, in
dividual.
After this discovery had been made
public, schools of tropical medicine
and societies took it up, books and
pamphlets innumerable were written
upon the subject, and healthy persons
volunteered themselves to to be act
ed upon by the experimentalists, SO
the new study was prosecuted with
all vigor. One of the things it is
most curious to note is that the re-
suits of all this combined working
merely developed and added to the
conjectures and theories of the an
clients. For example, the mosquitoes
which carry human malaria belong
to a species called the Anophelfnes,
which breed mostly in terrestrial wa
ters, that is, in marshes, which ex-
and malarial fever. But 1t is not
the parasite causing the fever which
lives and breeds in the marsh, but
the gnat or mosquito which is the
carrier of the parasitic poison. Where
appropriate marshes exist, these in
sects abound and infect everyone
within their reach by inoculating
them with the poison they carry from
one to the other. 1t is argued that
mosquitoes also exist and abound
where there is no malaria, and this
is true, the difference being that they
are not Anopheline mosquitoes. Hap
PLY for us, the Anopheline is a COM
paratively rare kind.
The remedy which Major Ross adj
vocates most strongly is the tracking
and drainage of waters and swamps
which favor the breeding of the ma
laria type; to carry out sanitation in
this way is not merely to get rid of
the mosquito itself, but of pests of
flies and other insects.
His plans are now being included
in all the schemes of tropical SANTA
ton, and with the improvement in
land, air and water, cleanliness and
better housing come as natural re-
suit, so that the local authority fol-
lows hard upon the heels of the i'm
perial officer, and the efforts of both
are fast making habitable for man
the long untenanted regions of the
globe, giving him, in fine, through
the destruction of unwholesome con-
ditions, the gift of new world
Scientific American.