THE SIERRA LEONE MALARIA-MOSQUITO. [To TEl EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The discovery of the malaria-mosquito at Sierra Leone is nothing wonderful ; the wonderful thing would have been that this genus, Anopheles, of the gnat tribe, widely distributed in Europe—from Scandinavia to Italy, from England to Russia —as well as in India and in the United States, should not be found on the West Coast of Africa. As one who knows something of India and of fever, I quite agree with your views on the question in your notes of last week. When the expedition returns triumphantly from Sierra Leone, it might with advantage visit Rangoon, the place you give as an example of the apparent failure of the theory, for a study of the other side of the question. Rangoon is on alluvial soil, in the delta of the Irrawaddy, with rice-fields, luxurious vegetation, moist heat, in fact everything necessary' to form a "hot-bed of fever," in Netley phraseology,—to say nothing of mosquitoes. And these, as you remark, swarm and bite with a vigour exceeded nowhere in the tropics. What an ideal place for discovering the malaria-mosquito! But unfortunately there is no fever in Rangoon, and troops that have come from some high and dry station in India, saturated with fever, get rid of it entirely after a few months in Rangoon. One might almost imagine that mosquito-bites were an antidote to malaria. Can the reason be that the genus Anopheles, so widely distributed elsewhere, even in Europe, is absent in Rangoon ? Must all the sorts and kinds of mosquitoes for which it is famous be harmless species in whose circulation bold and vigorous phagocytes watch ready to devour the imbibed lassmatozoa of imported malaria, and thus keep the mosquitoes, freed from the depressing parasite, in health, strength on the wing, and attention to business ? Rangoon, with Tonghoo and other military stations in Burmah, offer evidence that will have to be demolished before the mosquito theory of fever can be accepted. And Rangoon is not the only Eastern place where medical theories of fever break down before facts. The teachings of Netley have always afforded amusement to medical officers who have been long stationed in India and have had wits to use. Show me a place in which there is no fever, and it will probably be one of the hot-beds of fever of medical doctrinaires—and vice versa.—I am, Sir, etc.,
A DOCTOR (THOUGH DUBBED A COLONEL).
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