MALARIA'S MENACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20076, 13 October 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

MALARIA'S MENACE.

BY R. E. BROWN.

MOSQUITOES AND HISTORY.

By those who have lived in regions where malarial fever is an active menace to health, recent newspaper reports of a case within this Dominion will havo been read with anything but equanimity. Students of tho history of tho classic period do not dip very deeply into their researches before realising tho important position which malarial fever occupies in a consideration of tho factors leading to the decline of somo of the empires of that time.

The fall of the Roman rule had many causes, but malaria alone might well have been enough to effect it. It has been said that empires that yielded to no human enemy havo gone down beforo its assaults. In the earliest classic times malaria was quite unknown on the 1101thern shores of tho Mediterranean. It was not until the return to their homes of tho legions from their first raiding expeditions to tho plague-ridden valley of

the Nile that the disease made its appearance. The black oozo of tho Pontine marshes provided a fertile breeding ground for tho Anophelian mosquitos, which soon became infected as a result of biting tho fever-stricken soldiers. Hero, in brief, wo have the story of tho introduction into Europe of ft disease which became in a comparatively short period tho most -widespread of the dreaded parasites of humanity. While it is true that malaria spread until ultimately it ravaged tho greater part of the habitable world, it would be a mistako to suppose that its progress was absolutely uncheoked. History tells us how the much-slandered Goths cleaned up tho city of Ravenna, which, prospering greatly under their administration, became for three centuries the virtual capital of Italy. Barbaric only in energy and appearance, tho conquering Goths soon repaired the great land ramparts, falling in places into the oozes upon which they hatl been built. Armies of nati.vo labourers were engaged in cleaning tho immense stretches of marshland by cutting drains and building dykes. Plentiful supplies of wholesome water were brought by aqueduct to this city, where previously drinking water cost more than wine. The drained swamps were soon cultivated, tho mosquitos lost their breeding places, malaria died down and Ravdpna, freed of tho scourge, became tho most important city in Italy. Old Beliefs—and a Discovery. For centuries malaria was believed to be caused by the night air, or by vapours arising from swamps, rivers or freshlyopened earth. An hour before dusk, even in tho hottest countries, people were in tho habit of sealing themselves up in their nouses, every door and window tightly closed to exclude the poisonous vapours. * These precautions were productive of some success in checking the ravages of malaria, a degree of success high enough to lend support to tho erroneous night-air or swamp-vapour theory. Probably as a result of this xneasuro of success, for many years little research work was done, and malaria continued to claim its victims. At Sierra Leone, in 1890, twelve out of eighty white people died; while at Bonny, close by, not one white person survived the two-months' epidemic. After years of patient research, Sir Ronald Ross, the great expert on tropical medicine, found that the real evil-doer was a microscopic animal living in tho salivary glands of tho Anophelian mosquito.. When the mosquito sucks blood, she (for only the female bites) injects with tho ordinary poison of an insect sting some of the malarial parasites. Entering tho bloodstream, these animalculae live upon the lifo fluid, constantly incubating and hatching new generations of their kind, which increase in incredible numbers until, unless they bo checked, tho sufferer .dies. Sir Ronald made thus, in 1879, the greatest discovery in the history of the disease since tho* introduction of quinine.

The Birth of a City. During tlio cutting of the Suck Canal Do Lcsseps had considerable trouble among his labour gangs with cholera, caused, no doubt, by an infected water supply, obtained from tho Nile and carried in time-honoured Egyptian fashion in skin bags on camel-back. Now Do Lcsseps had planned to build the only port on the canal at a point on the west bank of Lake Timgah. This port lie named Ismailia, in honour of tho KhediVe Ismail Pasha, who provided all tho forced labour for the Canal scheme. Hoping to prevent further losses by cholera, Do Lesseps conceived the idea of bringing water from tho Nile, below Cairo, by means of shallow open canals to Ismailia. Like the Coths at, Ravenna, De Lesseps realised that an abundance of wholesale fresh water was an absolute necessity for tho health of the new city. But ho made one fatal mistake—he brought too much water. Tho surplus ran riot, producing swamps in the vicinity of the town. Then came the mosquitos carrying germs from tho already infected Italian and Greek artisans to tho native workmen, and soon, shivering, sweating, and ailing, many died. From being a town of ten thousand inhabitants it fell away almost to nothing. Captains of colliers with cargoes for Ismailia refused to go near the place, preferring to dump tho contents of their ships on a sandspit at the northern entrance to the Canal. Repudiated by the Canal Company, disowned by tho Egyptian Government, this dump, with the few miserable huts erected close by, belonged to nobody. Despito this neglect the village continued to grow, attracting tho rogues and riff-raff of the whole world.* To-day it is known as Port Said, the " City of Wickedness." Ismailia, on tho other hand, is just a pretty littlo garden village, frequented by tourists and members of tho Canal Company's staff, and regarded as a health resort. It will bo remembered that hero at Ismailia tho New Zealand troops encamped during the World War, there being few cases of malaria reported. Quinine—a Saviour.

It is probably to' somo nameless Spanish chemist experimenting with the alkaloids and essences of Peruvian plants, that wo owe tho happv accident of the discovery of tho use of quinino in malaria, although there are several entertaining but unlikely stories on the subject. _ Wo read that at Lima in 1638 a physician was able to euro the Countess of Chinchow, a Spanish noblewoman, of an attack of malaria, with a powder mado from tho curious reddish bark of a Peruvian tree. Returning to Spain, and taking supplies of the remedy with her. sho spread the famo of what soon came to be known as Countess' bark. Later, it attracted tho attention of the Jesuits, who, carrying the precious substance to distant parts, gave it the namo of Jesuits bark. , ... <T) In spite of considerable opposition (1 rotcstanls would not use it because it_ was Jesuits' bark) the remedy won for itself a placo which ovon some medical men rcfused to grant it, and to-day it stands as one of tho few absolutely specific medicines. After many unsuccessful attempts, chinchona trees wero grown in Java by the Dutch, and to-day the bulk of tho trado in quinine is in tho hands of that nation. India, however, grows in tho plantations in Ceylon, just about enough for her own needs, and quinine may be purchased in that country at any post oflico, at prices possible to the poorest native*