" The
moment that it is known that this cultivation has frequently been
advantageous, there comes forward a crowd of social reasons which induce
us to attempt it, even though we be persuaded that we are about to engage
in a game of chance. But to dare to attempt it is not all that is
necessary; we need also the possibility of so doing, and just here we find
ourselves in a vicious circle from which it is not easy to emerge. Forced
cultivation cannot be accomplished without the presence of agriculturists
in the region during the entire year; and the agriculturists cannot remain
in the region during the fever season, for they run thereby too great a
risk. For the solution of this question there is but one means: _try to
increase the power of resistance of the human organism to the attacks of
the malaria_. It is to a search after the means of accomplishing this
result that I have devoted myself during the past few years.
There is nothing to hope for, as regards malaria, in acclimation.
_Individual acclimation_ is, and always has been, impossible. The malarial
infection is not one of those a first attack of which confers immunity
from other attacks. It is, on the contrary, a progressive infection, the
duration of which is indeterminate, and which is of such a nature that a
single attack may suffice to ruin the constitution for life.
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