The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1920-12-30
DISPUTES METZ THEORY.

IN the inclosed clipping DR.. ID. Is. D.
writes zone from DIR. Evans coiuiiinI,
relative - mosquitoes biting hoss aau
horses and the possibility OF cohtroii-
ing malaria that way, is there any
for the statement NADER
''Thtrty-tive years practice in u laiiy
malarious section where there ave quito
q number OF hogs and horses Goes hoe
lead me TO believe that they nave any
thing to do with lessening the amount
Of mosquitoes or the incidence Oh una
laria. Furthermore. would not ths
horses become chronic carriers of ma
laria and really increase malaria lhste~u
of diminishing it g.
Yes, there Is basis for the Stationery
made. c. w Metz knows about as much
about malaria and mosquitoes as any
one. His report is to be found IN the
public health reports issued by the
United States public health service. L
do not know the saanding of DE-. e. Rou-
taud but his communication translated
alto English is also found In NUMBER
Of the public health reports. / suggest
that you write to the United States
public health service at Washington, D.
c., asking them for these two reports.
If you have never read Surgeon Gen
eral Gorgas' book OH Panama give II 10
your wife for a Christmas present. 1t
IS fascinating reading, and incidentally
you can read about the horse the mos
quitoes loved. There is all the evidence
Of which | know. 1t does not prove the
case, but it furnishes the basis for the
statement made and it suggests lnVesti-
cation.
Now, let's take your statements. 1t IS
not easy to say whether you have less
malaria than you would have had had
there heer. no horses or hogs around
your houses.
AS to your second suggestion, know
of no evidence that horses can become
infected with malaria or serve as chronE
malaria carriers. Salous makes staG~
ment delative to tsetse fly and sleeping
sickness in South Africa which may
help US to see this particular angle or
the case. When he first went to Sout1
Africa wild cate were almost eVexy-
where Wherever there were wild caei
there were tsetse flies, and in every sec
ton where tsetse flies abounded the ma
tives and their tame cattle We're subject
to sleeping sickness. So fara2 was tbs
sickness to native cattle and to native
men that certain strips of country bad
to be avoided. But though the tsetse
fliese lived on the wild cattle, the latter
never were infected with sleeping SICK
ness Then came the great epidemic OF
finderpest, killing off practically all OF
the wild cattle. The tsetse flies dis
appeared from all the regions where the
wild cattle were killed off.
When Salous revisited Africa few
years after this great epidemic he found
oxen pulling wagons and domestic COWS
Astounding in sections where before the
rinderpest came no tame oxen or cow
could live for an hour without being
bitten by tsetse flies and infected with
sleeping sickness.
Quite on the side, when President
Roosevelt announced in 1908 that he was
going lion hunting in South Africa some
of US said he would certainly die Of
sleeping sickness. Salous' book proves
to us that President Roosevelt knew IN
1908 that rinderpest had killed off the
wild cattle, the tsetse flies had almost
disappeared, and the danger of sleeping
sickness was slight. The Old Lion was
better Informed and less foolhardy than
we thought.
If the tsetse flies could infect tame
cattle with sleeping sickness, but did
not infect the wild ones on which they
fed. should we reason that mosquitoes
can infect horses with malaria merely
because they can infect man? To say
nothing of the fact that there is no
proof that horses have malaria Now,
doctor, you are in a fine position to try
out the Metz experiment and even the
Roubaud suggestion. Why not build
some hog baited mosquito traps?