Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-07-19
THE STORY OF MALARIA.
Has Been Studied by Scientists to
Two Thousand Years.

| fore the Roval Colonial Institute OF
| Great Britain. the other day, Maj.
| Ronald Ross said that it is the most
interesting disease Of all medical
science.
For 1000 years men have been study
ing it. and only now does success seem
in sight.
One of the most remarkable things
admitted by physicians now In dls-
cussing the disease is that we have
not disprovcd any of the more impor-
that theories of the ancients on the
subject. but have only elaborated on
them and verified them
Four hundred years before the Chris
tan era that great Greek. Hippocrates,
wrote learncdlv on malaria. Yet. to-
day it is encountered with dread by
physicians. Full Of astounding facts
is its story. go
Between man and nature. seerningly.
has the malarial war been waged. Pcr-:
haps. though, it would be nearcrc frt
rect to say that it has been fought be-
tween man and himself. IL s-ss, ~
For scientists believe that in this, as
other diseases. it is a violation of ma
lures laws. rather than preciivity of
nature herself. that has wrought the
trouble.
One hears nowadays of intermittent
fever" and is apt 20 imagine it a mod
ern term. Only in phraSeology is 1t so.
The ancients knew of intermittent
fever. About 400 r. G. the Romans and
Greeks had decided that malarial
fevers We're not continuous in type, and
divided them into three classes-those
occurring every day, every other day.
and every third day.
And that classification. in it's essen
tials. stands today.
Again. those ancients had discovered
a direct connection between the dis
ease and swampy or marshy places,
and even suggested that it was dis
seminated to man by germ. All of
which-with some elaboration-is now
known to be true.
A long time afterwards a villager OF
Malacotos. i'm Ecuador. discovered that
Peruvian bark would alleviate malaria
fever. In 1910 Europe learned of it.
and Louis XIV had his agues helped
by it,
Then. in 1929. the French chemists
separated quinine from the bark, and
felt that they had made a progressive
step in the treatment of malaria.
And so they had. for today uIinine
remains the accepted specific against
malaria.
About the middle Of the last con-
fury cam" another important discov-
cry: 1t was found-thanks to the mi
cr"sc"pc-that the "malarial pigment,
granulcs i'm the blood are the waste
matter thrown off by little parasites
which, living in the blood, cause the
disease.
linen. at a later period, Pasteur.
k"rh. Lister. and others were discov-
erin@ that bacteria were the cause Of
ah'hrax, tuberculosis. cholera, typhoid.
and leprnsy
The difference is that the malaria
germs are the lowest form of animal
life. while :he bacteria causing those
other diseases are the lowest form of
vegetable life.
rather extraordinary discovery Is
mat children in the tropics carry about
HVriads of malaria germs in their
sS"'ehls all the time, and, If they live
!" inaturlty-which very many of them
no not-they become immune.
'hiy about ten years ago was It
oiscovered-although some such
thihgs had been suspected for ccntur-
ies-that when mosquitoes of a certain
species suck the blood Of an affected
person. animal. or bird. they drew in
ne parasites of malaria and impart
tnenu to the ueyt victim, a..
"i'e'-fhiiadelphia North American.