New-York tribune., 1909-03-28
FIGHTING MOSorITO FETER.

DR.. Osler, he Of the merry euthanasian Jest,
reports and comments upon a noteworthy
achievement In sanitation In Italy, in n triumph
over mosquito fever, or malaria. That malady
in its various forms was score Of years ago
one Of the very deadliest in that country. II
ranked with tuberculosis pneumonia and the
enteric disorders OF infancy IN its destructive
ness of life In 1887 no fewer than 2i.033 per-
sons died of it. and It was regarded with hope
| lessness and despair quite incurable IN the
individual and as ineradicable from the regions
In which il prevailed But in 1897 the Italian
Society for the Study of Malaria began its work
and since then there has been a steady and
rapid decrease of the death roll. so that In
1907 the number Of victims OF the fever was
only T. 160 or fewer than One-ffth many as
twenty years before.
Naturally the first thought IS that this must
have been accomplished by getting rid Of the
mosquitoes which are the purveyors Of the
disease. That was the way in which the fever
was banished from Suez and in which it has
been reduced to a fraction Of its former preva-
lence and deadliness AZ Panama, and that was
the way In which yellow fever was hanished
from Panama and Cuba. Indeed Staten Isl
and and elsewhere in our own part Of the world
the ravages OF malaria have been greatly les
sened If not entirely ended by that process It
would have been peculiarly appropriate. too,
TO apply IL 10 lEiiF SlICS IL WIS III itldL Cpuli-
try on the Roman Campagna, that there were
conducted some of the most valuable and con-
vincing experiments for establishing the mos
quito theory Of the disease
Such. however. was not the case The italian
sanitarians recognized the truth Of the mos
quito theory, but they regarded it as imprac-
ticabe if not absolutely impossible. to get rid
of mosquitoes throughout extensive a terri
tory as that with which they had to deal They
tematic and ali but universal administration of
uuinlne as q specific cure for the disease. The
aid of the government was enlisted 10 secure
the free distribution of quinine TO the poor in
fever infested regions, and the ingenuity of in
ventors exercised to prepare the drug in
the least offensive forms. The result was that
qunine consumption became all but universal
and Herewith malaria largely disappeared.
That achievement does not in the least de
gree discredit or conflict with the MOSQUITO
theory nor does it argue against the desirabllity
Of exterminatng the insects wherever possible.
For the mosquitoes are not so much the orig
inators of the disease as the carriers Of it from
one person to another. Until it has bitten a
fever patient and thus become charged with the
virus of the disease, the mosquito is harmless
and so If there are no fever patients to bite the
insect must remain innocuOus. To deprive the
MOSQUITOES OF sources of infection is therefore
second in importance only to determination
of them for the suppression of the fever
Nevertheless determination is obviously the
more certain process of the two. when It is
practicable TO effect it. and in addition it avoids
tbe undesirable and sometimes really disastrous
effects of the consumption Of large quantities
of uuinne The best policy is doubtless that
which was pursued with such gratifying results
in Panama-namely. to use every possible effort
to get rid of the mosquitoes. to prevent those
nor destroyed from biting fever patients and to
supplement those efforts with a judicious ad-
nInistration of quinine BY such means II is
m he believed that malaria can he reduced to
,psisnffcance wherever II prevails.