Memoirs

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The solution of the malaria problem has been called the most dramatic episode in the history of medicine, and the facts when disclosed were certainly among the most wonderful in natural history; but the story has Often been very inaccurately reported. Twenty years have elapsed since I first proposed to publish it in detail for medical readers — that is, with the correspondence and other matter now contained in Part II and in portions of Part III of this volume but my numerous malaria-expeditions, and then the compilation of my textbook on the Prevention of Malaria, and lastly the war, interfered with the project. The book is now complete; but I have decided to address it not only to medical men but to the general reader, in the form of my memoirs. There are several good reasons for this. In the first place it is hoped that the work will be of some practical use as regards the reduction of one of the most wide spread Of diseases. Now this is a matter which is always ultimately in the hands of laymen — it is they, not the doctors, who rule the world. Hitherto the matter has been left almost entirely to the medical profession, which, however, has failed to carry my scheme of 1899 to its logical conclusion, largely because it is allowed little influence in the world''s counsels. Nothing, I am convinced, will really be done in this direction until those who govern us take the trouble to understand the subject. The only way to persuade them is to put the whole matter completely before them from my own point of view. In other words, the book is an appeal to Caesar; and I hope that he will deign to consider it.