Malaria

: Keep-well Stories For Little Folks

You remember, John, I told you about the "wiggle-tails," or baby

mosquitoes, in the rain barrel, and how eager my mother was to put oil

on the water and kill them.



Well, Mother told me a long story about the baby mosquitoes and what

they do when they are grown up. She said that mosquitoes carry malaria,

or chills, from one person to another.



Don't you remember when we had chills last summer nd Uncle John had to

come to see us and give us some medicine? Mother says that was because

some grown mosquito had bitten a person who had chills, and while

sucking that person's blood the mosquito had sucked into her bill some

malaria poison; then later when she bit us, she punched some of that

poison into our blood, while she was getting a supper from our blood.

The mosquito's bill is as sharp as one of Uncle John's knives.



Mother told me that a long time ago, when the English came to Virginia,

they settled at Jamestown, and they were afraid of the Indians, the

bears, and the panthers that could hide in the forest near-by.



The English did not know it, but they had a more deadly enemy then at

Jamestown than the Indians and the panthers. This enemy was so small

they could not see it, and then, too, they had not learned about it as

we are learning now. This enemy was the little germ or parasite that

causes malaria.



Mother says that it is easy to fight an enemy when it is out in the

open. The settlers knew only that many of their people got sick and

died. This was because there were many mosquitoes there, and these

mosquitoes bit them, and put these poisonous enemies into their blood.

But they did not know that the mosquitoes were the cause of the great

number of deaths in the colony.



All this happened many years ago. I believe the English thought their

old enemy, the Dragon, of which they had heard so much, but which they

could not see, had come to this new land.



We can know the mosquito that carries malaria because she looks as if

she is trying to stand on her head when she lights on anything. It seems

queer that the female mosquito is the only one which poisons us with

malaria. Perhaps the male mosquito cannot bite, because he has so many

feathery plumes on his bill.



The mosquito and the germ of malaria, which is carried from one person

to another, killed far more white people than the Indians or the wild

animals did.



Not many years ago, a very clever man found out that the mosquito

carried malaria, for, without her, the germs could never get into our

blood.



Mother says that the way for us to stop malaria is for us to kill all

the mosquitoes, and the best way to kill them off is to do so when they

are little "wiggle-tails" or "wigglers." She says the best way of all,

though, is never to have any standing water around where the mosquito

can lay her eggs.






I am going to kill every mosquito I see. Mother says I can tell the one

that carries malaria, because she is always trying to stand on her head

like this.



I'll tell you, let's have a "Mosquito and Fly Brigade." You can be the

Captain. All the little boys and girls in our classes can march under

our colors, and we will make war on every fly and mosquito in the

neighborhood, and stop the children and grown people from having

malaria. Mother says sickness costs a lot of money--many millions of

dollars every year.



We will be little soldiers while all the country is at peace, but we

will wage a battle royal against these very small but strong enemies,

and we will win.



Our motto will be, "To prevent is better than to cure."





QUESTIONS



1. What causes malaria?



2. Can you tell the difference between the

mosquito that carries malaria and the one that is

called the house mosquito?



3. Where do the mosquitoes feed?



4. What caused so many of the early settlers in

the Old Dominion (Virginia) to die?



5. Which was their greatest enemy, Indians, wild

animals, or malaria?



6. How much does malaria cost?



7. Can we prevent malaria? How?



8. What medicine will cure malaria?



9. Is it better to cure a disease or to prevent

it?



10. Where was quinine first gotten?



11. If a person has malaria, how may we prevent

other persons from getting it?



12. Have you a "Fly and Mosquito Brigade" in your

school, or will you have one?