Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-07-21
HISTORY OF MALARIA Disease Was Studied 400
 Years Before Christ. ANCIENTS' THEORIES Endurc-Modern Science Has Not Disproycd Them, but, Rather, Am- plified Them and Established Their Certainty-How Peruvian Bark Was Discovered and Brought Into Use.

The Story Of Malaria, as told by Maj. Ronald Ross, F. R. S., first to an audience of the Royal Colonial h. stitute of Great Britain, and later in the pages of the National Review, is full of most interesting facts that are apt to pass the memory, unless
 recalled from time to time. Our present knowledge, as he reminds us, says the Scientific American, is the result of more than 2,000 years of pa tient study, and it forms what might be called a gigantic epic of science. It tells of a long and hard-fought bat tie between man and nature, and it is only today that we even begin to see the promise of victory.
 If we go back to the writings of Hippocrates and his successors, some 400 years B. C., we learn that the Greeks and Romans were then study ing the character of malaria, and had distinguished it's class by two impor- tant points; the first was that ma larial levers are not continuous in type, but occur ill periodical attacks, and these attacks they classified as quotidian, tertian, and quartan; that is, occurring every day, every alter nate day, and every third day. AL though we now understand that at tacks may, by overlapping present the appearance of a continuous fever, this does not contradict the ancient classification. The second point found out by them and attested by succeed ing experience, is that there is di- rect connection between the marshes and sWampy pools Or soil and the prevalence of this kind of disease. They even went so far as to point to . probability of the disease being disseminated by a species of germ or microbe to living man, thus approach ing remarkably near to our nine- teenth century discoveries!
 Old Theories Not DisprOved.
 Indeed, we seem not to have dis proved any of the theories of the an cients, but rather to have enlargel upon them, added to their number and established their certainty. After the ancients-a very long time Of- terward-the next step forward was taken in South America. To villagNr of Malacotos, in Ecuador, we owe the discovery of the efficiency of Peru vian bark as cure for malarial fever-or as we should more correct ly term it, an antidote. This became known in Europe about 1640, and ac' quired fame after it had been used to alleviate the agues of Louis XIV. In 1920 two French chemists separated from Peruvian bark it's essential al- kaloid, quinine. Still, after the lapse of two and one-half centuries, the bark or it's alkaloid are the accepted specifies against malarial levers. By experimenting With the use of these drugs it was found possible to sepa- rate with greater precision the differ ent types of fever and determine the periods of attack.
 To the story of malaria another chapter was soon after this contrib uted by British military and maya! surgeons, at a time when British ships were exploiting all waters These found malarial fever to be commbn in all tropical countries that it was an enemy likely to be encountered almost anywhere. They added their affirmation to the theory that soil as well as water held the fever poison. About the middle of the last century, however, when biology became a favorite study, and the ml-
 croscope more perfected instru 1ment, the granules of what is now called malarial pigment were toun1 in the blood, and these pigment gran '' ules were found to be the refuse maj ter if innumerable little parasites which, living within the blood, caused disease. Almost at the same t!n'o that his discovery was made, Pas.au-. Koch, Lister and others were d.:- covering that bacteria were the cause