11
man. Indeed other mammals, birds and reptiles
are attacked and in some species we do not yet
know what their favourite blood is.
Of all the flies, the mosquito has probably
absorbed more man hours in study, observation
and attempted elimination than any other. The
reason of course is now well known to all,
Malaria.
The mosquito carries Malaria and transfers the
blood parasite (Plasmodium) from person to
person as she goes on her merry way.
Of course Malaria is primarily a tropical
disease, but even in Britain we have occasional
cases and in the not so distant past areas of
low lying-Britain such as Essex had a
considerable problem with the "Ague".
Mr. A. Bacot, in an Essex Naturalist of 1918,
quoted a letter from a field club member, Mr.
Thomas Barret Leonard of Aveley, in which he
wrote,
"When I was a boy, Ague was fairly common
here. I remember my mother used to dose
workmen on the estate with port and quinine,
and she suffered from it rather badly herself.
"My father tells me that, when he was young,
people used to say, 'Have you had your Ague
this Spring?' My great grandfather said he
would give up going to Court, as George III
annoyed him by asking always about his Ague.
"I cannot altogether believe Defoe's account in
his "Tour Through the Whole Island of Great