When such open evils can be so ignored, what wonder that the more
occult sources of malaria should not be arrived at? And when will they
be understood while accusations against particular insects require to
be held in reverence as dogmas? In the F. M. S. Report for 1911 Dr.
Sansom allows (p. 3) “there exists in the minds of a great many people
a doubt whether the mosquito carries malaria or any other disease”;
and proceeds to add “until this heresy has been corrected.” Heresy
indeed! Is not free thought the first fundamental of science? Having
thus labelled disbelief in his theory, Dr. Sansom in his next Report
for 1912 has to admit (p. 5), “I have visited many (rubber) estates
where anti-malarial work has not been completed _or even begun_,
so that infection remains as bad or nearly as bad as ever, yet, from
the time the laborers have been fed, down has come the death-rate.” If
food has so much to do with the trouble, why lay all the blame on Lady
Anopheles?
And just as too little food helped to make the coolies ill, is it not
likely, if it be not rude to ask, that too much food was part cause
for the malaria that troubled the prosperous members of the community
of Kuala Lumpur, the Federal Capital, so long as a need of drainage
left much to be desired in their surroundings? Who acquainted with the
Far East does not recall the many courses of the Chinese cook, and the
constant refilling of the champagne glass at dinner parties? There
seems small wonder that the carnivorous feeder and spirituous drinker
from a chilly latitude should fall a victim in the East to malarial
and other fevers: and this without any assistance from Lady Anopheles
or her sister mosquitoes. To her a meed of praise would seem due, for
where the mosquito exists there is proof of a need of drainage,
clearance, and general sanitary attention. But man, who has stoned the
prophets throughout the ages, equally execrates the insects that come
as warnings.
That non-proven is the verdict upon Lady Anopheles’ guilt seems well
shown by Dr. Fraser’s Report, incorporated with the general Medical
Report for the Federated Malay States for the year 1911.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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