The prevention of malaria.

  • Ross, Ronald, Sir, 1857-1932.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The prevention of malaria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    administrator, the villager and the poor; and has, I believe, profoundly modified the world's history by tending to render the whole of the tropics comparatively unsuitable for the full development of civilisation. It is essentially a political disease—one which affects the wel- fare of whole countries; and the prevention of it should therefore be an important branch of public adminis- tration. For the State as for the individual, health is the first postulate of prosperity. And prosperity should be the first object of scientific government. Fortunately, as often remarked, malaria is of all diseases the one regarding which we possess perhaps the fullest knowledge. We know the cause of it and the manner in which it is spread. We know a specific cure for it, and several efficient methods of prevention. It is our own fault then if we do not reduce it as much as possible. The literature of the subject dates back for more than two thousand years. To write a complete book on malaria, including references to all that has been worthily said or done in connection with it, would be a gigantic task. The history, the symptoms, the pathology and the treatment would fill several volumes ; a long essay could be written on the parasites; an entomological work on their carriers ; and a full account of the laws of diffusion, of the local distribution, of the preventive measures, and of the numerous preventive campaigns which have been conducted since the time of the ancients, would of itself occupy many hundreds of pages. But the task would be largely an unnecessary one, because we already possess many good books on