Malaria : a neglected factor in the history of Greece and Rome / by W.H.S. Jones ; with an introduction by Sir R. Ross ; a concluding chapter by G.G. Ellett.

  • Jones, W. H. S. (William Henry Samuel), 1876-1963.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Malaria : a neglected factor in the history of Greece and Rome / by W.H.S. Jones ; with an introduction by Sir R. Ross ; a concluding chapter by G.G. Ellett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ment of the spleen. They are carried from man to man by the agency of a class of gnats, called Anophelines, which breed in small pools of water on the ground. Where such pools are numerous in the hot months of summer and autumn, as in marshy localities, the insects generally abound ; and if a patient with the parasites in his blood enters the locality, they become infected by biting him, and then pass the microbes on to any healthy persons they may feed upon subsequently. The disease may thus be spread slowly by the gnats from a single patient until it infects the whole country; and where it has once entered, it is passed on from generation to generation. Ceteris paribus, where there are the most suitable pools in the summer, there are most Anophelines; and where there are the most Anophelines there is the most malaria—though qualifying circum- stances exist. Thus valleys and flat water- logged plains are generally the most malarious —the fact which gave rise to the synonym “marsh fever.” In very malarious places, children frequently become infected after birth and remain infected until puberty, when the survivors acquire partial immunity. In many low-lying villages almost every child contains the parasites and looks more or less wasted and pale, with greatly enlarged spleen and a dusky complexion. People who live on the surrounding hills, though these may be healthy