Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/680

NAME KING 658 KING Dr. Bovee, his biographer, finds eighty-two titles to his papers i^H'ashinijton Alcdical An- nals, 1915, xiv, 107). His first paper, on May 30, 1864, was on menstruation, in which he contended that it is a disease. His manual of obstetrics, published in 1882, had a large vogue and was at the time of his death about to enter its twelfth edition. King's title to be remembered lies not in the prominent position he occupied among the old- er medical men who upheld the best traditions of the profession in the District of Columbia, but rather in these three factors: first of all as the teacher of great numbers of medical aspirants over a long period; secondly as au- thor of an excellent widely circulated text book; and lastly and most important, in the years 1881 and 1882 he conceived the idea that malaria was regularly transmitted by mosqui- toes, and stuck to it. His conception that malaria was caused by the mosquito bite was a clear, positive and direct apprehension of the truth, one of those brilliant flashes in the Stygian night which often precede the slow gathering light of the day shed from the laboratory. The simple testing of the inexpensive, easily applied pre- ventive measures King recommended would at once have established the truth of his claims in the absence of all microscopes and labora- tories, and would as well, at one fell swoop, not only have eliminated malaria, but yellow fever and filariasis! L. O. Howard, the dis- tinguished entomologist, recalls a conversation he and C. .T. Riley had with King about 1881, when they supplied the doctor with facts rela- tive to the life history of the mosquito, while they listened skeptically and unconcerned to the young doctor's exposition of his novel theory. King gives 19 reasons for holding that the mosquito causes yellow fever. The original mosquito paper was read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, Feb. 10, 1882, with the title "The Prevention of Malarial Disease, illustrating hitcr alia the Conservative Function of Ague." The com- ment of so brilliant a mind as Dr. J. S. Bill- ings, who was present, was that "the most that could be claimed was that they accomplished an accidental inoculation with malarial poi- son," aliquando dormitat bonus Homenis. I abbreviate the following memoranda from King's paper in the Popular Science Monthly, Sept., 1883, pages 644 to 658: He first reviews the idea of insect origin of disease and cites Kircher, Linnaeus and Ny- ander. He refers to the mosquito as the car- rier of the filaria as shown by Manson in China, and others. He quotes Finlay's theory that yellow fever is caused by the mosquito (ISSl), remarking in approval that "it is to be noted that the spread of the disease ceases with the frost ; so also do the peregrinations of the mosquito." As to malaria he says, "in this paper my chief design is to present what facts I may be able in support of the mosquital origin of malarial disease — in fact of ague." He recalls Josiah Nott's (q. v.) claim in 1848 that yellow fever was of insect origin, and says that Nott also suggested "the mosquito of the lowlands" as a more likely cause of malarial fever than the marsh vapors of Lancisi. He drives home his argument with these nineteen cogent reasons, which I abbreviate, to prove that the mos- quito is the responsible factor in malaria: 1. Malaria affects low moist localities. So do mosquitoes. 2. Malaria hardly ever develops at a tem- perature lower than 60° F. This temperature is necessary for the development of the mos- quito. 3. The active agent of malaria is checked by a temperature of 32° F. The mosquito is killed or paralyzed at this temperature. 4. Malaria is abundant and increasingly vir- ulent as we approach the equator. So are mosquitoes. 5. Malaria has an affinity for dense foliage Mosquitoes also seek foliage as a protection. 6. The barrier of a forest will obstruct the path of malaria. It also prevents the migra- tion of mosquitoes. 7. Malaria is carried by atmospheric cur- rents, probably as far as 5 miles. The mos- quito is likewise so transported. 8. Malaria develops after the turning up of the soil, making of excavations, and the digging of canals. King here cites an out- break of malaria in Hongkong as an example. These conditions are favorable for the devel- opment of mosquitoes. 9. A body of water of considerable size will check the passage of malaria. 10. When countries become cleared up and settled, malaria disappears. 11. Malaria keeps near the surface of the ground, but when blown by winds may rise to considerable heights. 12. Malaria is most dangerous when the ?un goes down. This is the time mosquitoes are abroad and active. 13. A person sleeping exposed and in the night air is more liable to malaria, also to mosquito bites.