THE MOSQUITO DESTROYS MIGHTY EMPIRES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 433, 24 January 1912, Page 2

THE MOSQUITO DESTROYS MIGHTY EMPIRES.

Professor W. M. Wheeler has declared, in a lecture of great moment, that mighty Rome and glorious Greece fell, because malaria spread by the mosquito sapped the vigour

of their people. The implication of his lectufe clearly was that other countries will fall in the same way unless they suppress malaria and the mosquito. You must not search history expecting to find that Rome and Greece fell suddenly under the on-

ilaughts of the fierce malaria-breed-ing mosquito. It was a long, insidious process—a gradual : undermining of the vigour of the people. The manner in which the evil was done should be a warning, for it stole upon the ancient nations unawares.

In early times we know that the Romans were ai very rough, simple people, of great, patriotism and robust virtues, who beat all their neighbours, but abstained from going further afield. They must have been free from malaria, or they would not have shown such vigour. They were in close proximity to a great breeding place of the Anopheles mosquito , —the Roman Campagna—which conveys malaria, but unless there are persons suffering fromj the disease th« mosquito cannot communicate it.

. The common mosquito does not breed malaria. The common mosquito, easily distinguished from the malaria mosquito after one has studied the markings, is quite harmJess, at least, in so far as malaria goes.

; The Romans first came into touch iwith tropical parts of the world when they conquered the Carthaginians. Perhaps some malaria was acquired from Carthage, but the in J fectioo was not serious. The stet which eventually led to the decay ol the Romans was the war against Phillip of Macedon, who had conquered Greece and a large part of the Eastern world. That led them to the East. The Greeks had already advanced far on the path of physical decadence through their long association with the malaria-infected races of the East. Millions of Greeks were colonised in Asia Minor, Persia and other parts of the East.

The ancient Oriental world was thoroughly saturated with malaria, from Egypt to Babylonia. That was why the Oriental races were inferior to the pure, untainted, vigorous racea of Europe. Phillip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great, overran a large part of the East. The Romans then gradually took possession of the Empire of Alexander until by the time of Augustus Caesar, in 27 8.C., they held practically the whole of the civilised Orient, including Greece and Egypt.

However, vigorous races from th« cold parts of the world, uninfected by malaria —Goths, Vandals, Hunsswarmed down upon Italy, and the poor diseased Romans were too weak to struggle against them. The neglect of agriculture in Italy also favoured the spread of the mosquito and malaria. Agriculture made drainage necessary, and for this reason there could be little malaria. But so much wealth flowed frorr other countries into the metropolis of the world that the cultivation ol the fields was neglected and to a great extent abandoned. Farms were deserted, a nd wide areas formerly devoted toi the raising of grain and vegetables were left to produce only one crop—namely, mosquitoes. The land beingj no longer drained immense tracts became uninhabitable.

The end was hastened by the abandonment of the drainage works in the Roman Campagna, created during the efficient period o! the empire. The Campagna thus became the worst breeding place of malaria in Italy, a blight under which the city of Rome aas struggled from then to the present day. Rome and Greece are still threatened with complete extinction through malaria, and, more awful still, Prof. Wheeler assures us that the United States, iwhich has apparently reachec the height of its power and glory, like Rome in the days of Augustus Caesar, is now malaria infested from end to end. Is it possible, asks oui authority, that the country wil gradually sink 1 under its burden, thai the Northern European stock, ol which it possesses' so large a share will be slowly enfeebled and vitiated Dy it. Needless to say, the Americans are alive to the danger, and are doing all they can to combat it. Of course, people in the days of Rome's greatness had no notion thai the mosquito had anything; to "dc with malaria. But it was realised that swamps and stagnant ponds were in some way accountable —th< idea being that poisonous "miasmas' arising from such water gave rise tc the plague. To-day science recog nises no such thing as miasma ; yet only a few years ago this theory was still universally accepted. Hence, indeed, the very word "malaria,' which is Italian for bad air. It was a remarkable experiment, planned by Sir Patrick Manson, thai proved that the mosquito alone con veyed malaria. The) doctors experi menting in the Campagna slept in a hut at night, screened by wire nett ing from the mosquitoes, but fulls sxposed to the air supposed to be full of miasma. After months they failed to develop malaria. Thus th« miasma theory was exploded. Then some mosquitoes were made to bite a,' Roman peasant sufferinj severely from malaria. They were put in a case and sent to England where they were made to bite Dr Manson's son, a healthy young man living in a country where there is n( malaria. Hq promptly developed thi disease in its worst form.— "Populai Sciiencj. Sif ~--