“THINKING LIKE A MOSQUITO“

Evening Star, Issue 20320, 31 October 1929, Page 1

“THINKING LIKE A MOSQUITO“

THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION’S CAMPAIGN In the latest report of the activities of the Rockefeller Foundation (which in 1928 involved the expenditure of well over five million pounds in nearly every country in the world) Dr George E. Vincent, President of the Foundation, says, in reference to its anti-malarial work:—

“ A good malaria-fighter must learn to think like a mosquito. He must ask; Which of many kinds of anophelinc mosquitoes shall I try to imagine myself? How far is it possible to fly? When and where is food to be had? Which blood is to be preferred, human or animal ? How can one get into a screened house ? Whore shall one rest after a good meal? . . . Then, too, it is important to think like a larva, which has grown from egg to ‘ wiggler,’ and to wonder. How can one get through that film of oil on tho top of the water? Is that little floating speck food or a grain of ‘ Paris green ’ (a substance used to destroy the larvae).” These and many other questions have to ho answered by the “ mosquito thinkers ” of tho Foundation, who last year assisted twenty governments from tho West Indies, through Europe, to the Philippines in their fight against malaria, while training schools for such thinkers were provided in Italy, Corsica, and Spain. Hookworm, happily not known in this country, but described by Dr \ incent as “ probably the most prevalent of all man’s ills, certainly tho most common of all human parasitic infections,” has been tackled by the Foundation throughout the tropical countries of the world, and this so effectively, that he states: “Hookworm has been called ‘ tho advance agent of public health organisation,’ because it has prepared the way for more general and inclusive programmes. Tho fight has also been continued against yellow fever, though two great men laid down their lives in the service of the Foundation and of humanity, namely, Dr Nogucjii, the Japanese scientist, and Di‘ W. A. Young, both of whom passed away lastyear in West Africa.” , The scope of the Foundation's activities ranges from generous grants to the Bow London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to assisting Mississippi flood sufferers ; Uora the support of the Peking Union Medical College, of the staff of which 66 per cent., is now Chinese, to grants to the Medical School at Suva, Fiji, where many of the students are the grandsons of cannibals. Fellowships were granted to 802 men.and women of fortysix countries to study health problems in other lands than Their °' v n> while generous help was given to the Health Organisation of the League of Nations, j