[1] In Huxley's terminology the first two or three joints of the stem
constitute a "protopodite," from which spring the "endopodite" and
"exopodite."
MALAGA, a maritime province of southern Spain, one of the eight modern
subdivisions of Andalusia; bounded on the W. by Cadiz, N. by Seville and
Cordova, E. by Granada, and S. by the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900),
511,989; area, 2812 sq. m. The northern half of Malaga belongs to the
great Andalusian plain watered by the Guadalquivir, the southern is
mountainous, and rises steeply from the coast. Of the numerous sierras
may be mentioned that of Alhama, separating the province from Granada,
and at one point rising above 7000 ft.; its westward continuation in the
Sierra de Abdalajis and the Axarquia between Antequera and Malaga; and
not far from the Cadiz boundary the Sierras de Ronda, de Mijas, de Tolox
and Bermeja, converging and culminating in a summit of nearly 6500 ft.
The rivers which rise in the watershed formed by all these ranges reach
the sea after a short and precipitous descent, and in rainy seasons are
very liable to overflow their banks. In 1907 great loss of life and
destruction of property were caused in this manner. The principal river
is the Guadalhorce, which rises in the Sierra de Alhama, and, after a
westerly course past the vicinity of Antequera, bends southward through
the wild defile of Peñarrubia and the beautiful _vega_ or vale of
Malaga, falling into the sea near that city. The only other considerable
stream is the Guadiaro, which has the greater part of its course within
the province and flows past Ronda. There is an extensive salt lagoon
near the northern boundary. The mountains are rich in minerals, lead,
and (in the neighbourhood of Marbella) iron, being obtained in large
quantities. There are warm sulphurous springs and baths at Carratraca.
Though the methods of agriculture are for the most part rude, the yield
of wheat in good seasons is considerably in excess of the local demand;
and large quantities of grapes and raisins, oranges and lemons, figs and
almonds, are annually exported. The oil and wines of Malaga are also
highly esteemed, and after 1870 the manufacture of beet and cane sugar
developed into an important industry. In 1905 there were about 500 flour
mills and 230 oil factories beside 95 stills and 100 wine-presses in the
province. Malaga has suffered severely from the agricultural depression
prevalent throughout southern Spain, but its manufacturing industries
tend to expand. The fisheries are important; a fleet of about 300 boats
brings in 18,000,000 lb. annually, of which 25% is exported. The
internal communications are in many parts defective, owing to the broken
nature of the surface; but the province is traversed from north to south
by the Cordova-Malaga railway, which sends off branches from Bobadilla
to Granada and Algeciras. A branch line along the coast from Malaga to
Vélez Malaga was opened in 1908.
Malaga, the capital (pop. 130,109), Antequera (31,609), Vélez Malaga
(23,586), Ronda (20,995), Coín (12,326), and Alora (10,325), are
described in separate articles. Other towns with more than 7000
inhabitants are Marbella (9629), Estepona (9310), Archidona (8880) and
Nerja (7112). The population of the province tends gradually to
decrease, as many families emigrate to South America, Algeria and
Hawaii.
MALAGA, the capital of the province of Malaga, an episcopal see, and,
next to Barcelona, the most important seaport of Spain, finely situated
on the Mediterranean coast, at the southern base of the Axarquia hills
and at the eastern extremity of the fertile vega (plain) of Malaga in
36° 43´ N. and 4° 25´ W. Pop. (1900), 130,109. From the clearness of its
sky, and the beautiful sweep of its bay, Malaga has sometimes been
compared with Naples. The climate is one of the mildest and most equable
in Europe, the mean annual temperature being 66.7° Fahr. The principal
railway inland gives access through Bobadilla to all parts of Spain, and
a branch line along the coast to Vélez-Malaga was opened in 1908. Malaga
lies principally on the left bank of a mountain torrent, the
Guadalmedina ("river of the city"); the streets near the sea are
spacious and comparatively modern, but those in the older part of the
town, where the buildings are huddled around the ancient citadel, are
narrow, winding and often dilapidated. Well-built suburbs have also
spread on all sides into the rich and pleasant country which surrounds
Malaga, and several acres of land reclaimed from the sea have been
converted into a public park. There are various squares or plazas and
public promenades; of the former the most important are the Plaza de
Riego (containing the monument to General José Maria Torrijos, who, with
forty-eight others, was executed in Malaga on the 11th of December 1831,
for promoting an insurrection in favour of the constitution) and the
Plaza de la Constitucion; adjoining the quays is the fine Paseo de la
Alameda. The city has no public buildings of commanding architectural or
historical importance. The cathedral, on the site of an ancient mosque,
was begun about 1528; after its construction had been twice interrupted,
it was completed to its present state in the 18th century, and is in
consequence an obtrusive record of the degeneration of Spanish
architecture. The woodwork of the choir, however, is worthy of
attention. The church of El Cristo de la Victoria contains some relics
of the siege of 1487. There are an English church and an English
cemetery, which dates from 1830; up to that year all Protestants who
died in Malaga were buried on the foreshore, where their bodies were
frequently exposed by the action of wind and sea. Of the old Moorish
arsenal only a single horseshoe gateway remains, the rest of the site
being chiefly occupied by an iron structure used as a market; the
Alcazába, or citadel, has almost disappeared. The castle of Gibralfaro,
on a bold eminence to the north-east dates from the 13th century, and is
still in fairly good preservation.
During the 19th century so much silt accumulated in the harbour that
vessels were obliged to lie in the roads outside, and receive and
discharge cargo by means of lighters; but new harbour works were
undertaken in 1880, and large ships can now again load or discharge at
the quays, which are connected with the main railway system by a branch
line. About 2150 ships of 1,750,000 tons enter at Malaga every year.
Iron, lead, wine, olive oil, almonds, fresh and dried fruit, palmetto
hats and canary seed are exported in large quantities, while the imports
include grain, codfish, fuel, chemicals, iron and steel, machinery,
manures and staves for casks. Although trade was impeded during the
early years of the 20th century by a succession of bad harvests and by
the disastrous floods of September 1907, the number of industries
carried on in and near Malaga tends steadily to increase. There are
large cotton mills, iron foundries, smelting works and engineering
works. Pottery, mosaic, artificial stone and tiles are produced chiefly
for the home market, though smaller quantities are sent abroad. There is
a chromo-lithographic establishment, and the other industries include
tanning, distilling and the manufacture of sugar, chocolate, soap,
candles, artificial ice, chemical products, white lead and pianos.
Foreign capital has played a prominent part in the development of
Malaga; a French syndicate owns the gas-works, and the electric lighting
of the streets is controlled by British and German companies.
Malaga is the [Greek: Málaka] of Strabo (iii. 156) and Ptolemy (ii. 4,
7) and the _Malaca foederatorum_ of Pliny (iii. 3). The place seems to
have been of some importance even during the Carthaginian period; under
the Romans it became a municipium, and under the Visigoths an episcopal
see. In 711 it passed into the possession of the Moors, and soon came to
be regarded as one of the most important cities of Andalusia. It was
attached to the caliphate of Cordova, but on the fall of the Omayyad
dynasty it became for a short time the capital of an independent
kingdom; afterwards it was dependent on Granada. In 1487 it was taken
and treated with great harshness by Ferdinand and Isabella after a
protracted siege. In 1810 it was sacked by the French under General
Sebastiani. The citizens of Malaga are noted for their opposition to the
Madrid government; they took a prominent part in the movements against
Espartero (1843), against Queen Isabella (1868) and in favour of a
republic (1873).
MALAKAND PASS, a mountain pass in the North-West Province of India,
connecting the British district of Peshawar with the Swat Valley. It is
now a military post and the headquarters of a political agency. It came
into prominence for the first time in 1895 during the Chitral campaign,
when 7000 Pathans held it against Sir Robert Low's advance, but were
easily routed. After the campaign was over a fortified camp was formed
on the Malakand to guard the road to Chitral. During the frontier
risings of 1897 the Swatis made a determined attack on the Malakand,
where 700 were killed, and on the adjacent post of Chakdara, where 2000
were killed. This was the origin of the Malakand Expedition of the same
year. (See SWAT.)
MALALAS (or MALELAS) (Syriac for "orator"), JOHN (c. 491-578), Byzantine
chronicler, was born at Antioch. He wrote a [Greek: Chronographia] in 18
books, the beginning and the end of which are lost. In its present state
it begins with the mythical history of Egypt and ends with the
expedition to Africa under Marcianus, the nephew of Justinian. Except
for the history of Justinian and his immediate predecessors, it
possesses little historical value; it is written without any idea of
proportion and contains astonishing blunders. The writer is a supporter
of Church and State, an upholder of monarchical principles. The work is
rather a chronicle written round Antioch, which he regarded as the
centre of the world, and (in the later books) round Constantinople. It
is, however, important as the first specimen of a chronicle written not
for the learned but for the instruction of the monks and the common
people, in the language of the vulgar, with an admixture of Latin and
Oriental words. It obtained great popularity, and was conscientiously
exploited by various writers until the 11th century, being translated
even into the Slavonic languages. It is preserved in an abridged form in
a single MS. now at Oxford.
For the authorities consulted by Malalas, the influence of his work on
Slavonic and Oriental literature, the state of the text, the original
form and extent of the work, the date of its composition, the relation
of the concluding part to the whole, and the literature of the
subject, see C. Krumbacher's _Geschichte der byzantinischen
Litteratur_ (1897). See also the _editio princeps_, by E. Chilmead
(Oxford, 1691), containing an essay by Humphrey Hody and Bentley's
well-known letter to Mill; other editions in the Bonn _Corpus
scriptorum hist. byz._, by L. Dindorf (1831), and in J. P. Migne
_Patrologia graeca_, xcvii.
MALAN, SOLOMON CAESAR (1812-1894), British divine and orientalist, was
by birth a Swiss descended from an exiled French family, and was born at
Geneva on the 22nd of April 1812, where his father, Dr Henry Abraham
Caesar Malan (1787-1864) enjoyed a great reputation as a Protestant
divine. From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable faculty for
the study of languages, and when he came to Scotland as tutor in the
marquis of Tweeddale's family at the age of 18 he had already made
progress in Sanskrit, Arabic and Hebrew. In 1833 he matriculated at St
Edmund Hall, Oxford; and English being almost an unknown tongue to him,
he petitioned the examiners to allow him to do his paper work of the
examination in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin or Greek, rather
than in English. But his request was not granted. After gaining the
Boden and the Pusey and Ellerton scholarships, he graduated 2nd class in
_Lit. hum._ in 1837. He then proceeded to India as classical lecturer at
Bishop's College, Calcutta, to which post he added the duties of
secretary to the Bengal branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; and
although compelled by illness to return in 1840, laid the foundation of
a knowledge of Tibetan and Chinese. After serving various curacies, he
was presented in 1845 to the living of Broadwindsor, Dorset, which he
held until 1886. During this entire period he continued to augment his
linguistic knowledge, which he carried so far as to be able to preach in
that most difficult language, Georgian, on a visit which he paid to
Nineveh in 1872. His translations from the Armenian, Georgian and Coptic
were numerous. He applied his Chinese learning to the determination of
important points connected with Chinese religion, and published a vast
number of parallel passages illustrative of the Book of Proverbs. In
1880 the university of Edinburgh conferred upon him the honorary degree
of D.D. No modern scholar, perhaps, has so nearly approached the
linguistic omniscience of Mezzofanti; but, like Mezzofanti, Dr Malan was
more of a linguist than a critic. He made himself conspicuous by the
vehemence of his opposition to Westcott and Hort's text of the New
Testament, and to the transliteration of Oriental languages, on neither
of which points did he in general obtain the suffrages of scholars. His
extensive and valuable library, some special collections excepted, was
presented by him in his lifetime to the Indian Institute at Oxford. He
died at Bournemouth on the 25th of November 1894. His life has been
written by his son.
MÄLAR, a lake of Sweden, extending 73 m. westward from Stockholm, which
lies at its junction with the Saltsjö, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The
height of the lake is normally only from 11 in. to 2 ft. above
sea-level, and its outflow is sometimes reversed. The area is 449 sq. m.
The bottom consists of a series of basins separate by ridges from which
rise numerous islands. The deepest sounding is 210 ft. The outline is
very irregular, the mean breadth being about 15 m., but an arm extends
northward for 30 m. nearly to the city of Upsala with many
ramifications. The area of the drainage basin is 8789 sq. m., of which
1124 are occupied by lakes. The navigable connexions with the lake
are--(1) with lake Hjelmar to the south-west by the Arboga river and the
Hjelmar canal; and by the Eskilstuna river and the Thorshälla canal; (2)
with the Baltic southward through the Södertelge canal, the route
followed by the Göta canal steamers; (3) with the Baltic by two channels
at Stockholm. The more important towns, besides Stockholm, are Vesterås
on the north, Södertelge and Eskilstuna near the south shore. The lake
offers a field for recreation fully appreciated by the inhabitants of
the capital, and many of those whose business lies at Stockholm have
their residences on the shores of Mälar. On Drottningholm (Queen's
Island, named from Catherine, wife of John III.) is a palace with a fine
park and formal gardens. John III. built a palace at the close of the
16th century, but the existing building, by Nicodemus Tessin and his son
Nicodemus, dates from the second half of the 17th century. At Mariefred
on the south shore there is the castle of Gripsholm (1537), built by
Gustavus Vasa, a picturesque erection with four towers, richly adorned
within, and containing a large collection of portraits. Strengnäs, on
the same shore, became an episcopal see in 1291, when the fine
cathedral, much altered since, was consecrated. In the episcopal palace,
a building of the 15th century now used as a school, Gustavus Vasa was
elected to the throne of Sweden in 1523. On the northward arm of the
lake is the palace of Rosenberg, used as a school of gunnery, in a
well-wooded park. On a branch of the same arm is Sigtuna, a village
whose ruined churches are a memorial of its rank among the principal
towns of Sweden after its foundation in the 11th century. Remains prove
that on Björkö, an island in the eastern part of the lake, there was a
large settlement of earlier importance than Sigtuna. Here a cross
commemorates the preaching of Christianity by St Ansgar in 829. Finally,
on the northern arm about 10 m. south of Upsala, there is the château of
Skokloster, occupying the site of a monastery, and presented by Gustavus
Adolphus to Marshal Herman Wrangel, whose son Charles Gustavus Wrangel
stored it with a remarkable collection of trophies from Germany, taken
during the Thirty Years' War; including a library, an armoury, and a
great accumulation of curios.
MALARIA, an Italian colloquial word (from _mala_, bad, and _aria_, air),
introduced into English medical literature by Macculloch (1827) as a
substitute for the more restricted terms "marsh miasm" or "paludal
poison." It is generally applied to the definite unhealthy condition of
body known by a variety of names, such as ague, intermittent (and
remittent) fever, marsh fever, jungle fever, hill fever, "fever of the
country" and "fever and ague." A single paroxysm of simple ague may come
upon the patient in the midst of good health or it may be preceded by
some malaise. The ague-fit begins with chills proceeding as if from the
lower part of the back, and gradually extending until the coldness
overtakes the whole body. Tremors of the muscles more or less violent
accompany the cold sensations, beginning with the muscles of the lower
jaw (chattering of the teeth), and extending to the extremities and
trunk. The expression has meanwhile changed: the face is pale or livid;
there are dark rings under the eyes; the features are pinched and sharp,
and the whole skin shrunken; the fingers are dead white, the nails blue.
All those symptoms are referable to spasmodic constriction of the small
surface arteries, the pulse at the wrist being itself small, hard and
quick. In the interior organs there are indications of a compensating
accumulation of blood, such as swelling of the spleen, engorgement (very
rarely rupture) of the heart, with a feeling of oppression in the
chest, and a copious flow of clear and watery urine from the congested
kidneys. The body temperature will have risen suddenly from the normal
to 103° or higher. This first or cold stage of the paroxysm varies much
in length; in temperate climates it lasts from one to two hours, while
in tropical and subtropical countries it may be shortened. It is
followed by the stage of dry heat, which will be prolonged in proportion
as the previous stage is curtailed. The feeling of heat is at first an
internal one, but it spreads outwards to the surface and to the
extremities; the skin becomes warm and red, but remains dry; the pulse
becomes softer and more full, but still quick; and the throbbings occur
in exposed arteries, such as the temporal. The spleen continues to
enlarge; the urine is now scanty and high-coloured; the body temperature
is high, but the highest temperatures occur during the chill; there is
considerable thirst; and there is the usual intellectual unfitness, and
it may be confusion, of the feverish state. This period of dry heat,
having lasted three or four hours or longer, comes to an end in
perspiration, at first a mere moistness of the skin, passing into
sweating that may be profuse and even drenching. Sleep may overtake the
patient in the midst of the sweating stage, and he awakes, not without
some feeling of what he has passed through, but on the whole well, with
the temperature fallen almost or altogether to the normal, or it may be
even below the normal; the pulse moderate and full; the spleen again of
its ordinary size; the urine that is passed after the paroxysm deposits
a thick brick-red sediment of urates. The three stages together will
probably have lasted six to twelve hours. The paroxysm is followed by a
definite interval in which there is not only no fever, but even a fair
degree of bodily comfort and fitness; this is the intermission of the
fever. Another paroxysm begins at or near the same hour next day
(quotidian ague), which results from a double tertian infection, or the
interval may be forty-eight hours (tertian ague), or seventy-two hours
(quartan ague). It is the general rule, with frequent exceptions, that
the quotidian paroxysm comes on in the morning, the tertian about noon,
and the quartan in the afternoon. Another rule is that the quartan has
the longest cold stage, while its paroxysm is shortest as a whole; the
quotidian has the shortest cold stage and a long hot stage, while its
paroxysm is longest as a whole. The point common to the various forms of
ague is that the paroxysm ceases about midnight or early morning.
Quotidian intermittent is on the whole more common than tertian in hot
countries; elsewhere the tertian is the usual type, and quartan is only
occasional.
If the first paroxysm should not cease within the twenty-four hours, the
fever is not reckoned as an intermittent, but as a remittent.
_Remittent_ is a not unusual form of the malarial process in tropical
and subtropical countries, and in some localities or in some seasons
it is more common than intermittent. It may be said to arise out of
that type of intermittent in which the cold stage is shortened while
the hot stage tends to be prolonged. A certain abatement or remission
of the fever takes place, with or without sweating, but there is no
true intermission or interval of absolute apyrexia. The periodicity
shows itself in the form of an exacerbation of the still continuing
fever, and that exacerbation may take place twenty-four hours after
the first onset, or the interval may be only half that period, or it
may be double. A fever that is to be remittent will usually declare
itself from the outset: it begins with chills, but without the
shivering and shaking fit of the intermittent; the hot stage soon
follows, presenting the same characters as the prolonged hot stage of
the quotidian, with the frequent addition of bilious symptoms, and it
may be even of jaundice and of tenderness over the stomach and liver.
Towards morning the fever abates; the pulse falls in frequency, but
does not come down to the normal; headache and aching in the loins and
limbs become less, but do not cease altogether; the body temperature
falls, but does not touch the level of apyrexia. The remission or
abatement lasts generally throughout the morning; and about noon there
is an exacerbation, seldom ushered in by chills, which continues till
the early morning following, when it remits or abates as before. A
patient with remittent may get well in a week under treatment, but the
fever may go on for several weeks; the return to health is often
announced by the fever assuming the intermittent type, or, in other
words, by the remissions touching the level of absolute apyrexia.
Remittent fevers (as well as intermittents) vary considerably in
intensity; some cases are intense from the outset, or pernicious, with
aggravation of all the symptoms--leading to stupor, delirium,
collapse, intense jaundice, blood in the stools, blood and albumen in
the urine, and, it may be, suppression of urine followed by
convulsions. The severe forms of intermittent are most apt to occur in
the very young, or in the aged, or in debilitated persons generally.
Milder cases of malarial fever are apt to become dangerous from the
complications of dysentery, bronchitis or pneumonia. Severe remittents
(pernicious or bilious remittents) approximate to the type of yellow
fever (q.v.), which is conventionally limited to epidemic outbreaks in
western longitudes and on the west coast of Africa.
Of the mortality due to malarial disease a small part only is referable
to the direct attack of intermittent, and chiefly to the fever in its
pernicious form. Remittent fever is much more fatal in its direct
attack. But probably the greater part of the enormous total of deaths
set down to malaria is due to the _malarial cachexia_. The dwellers in a
malarious region like the Terai (at the foot of the Himalayas) are
miserable, listless and ugly, with large heads and particularly
prominent ears, flat noses, tumid bellies, slender limbs and sallow
complexions; the children are impregnated with malaria from their birth,
and their growth is attended with aberrations from the normal which
practically amount to the disease of rickets. The malarial cachexia that
follows definite attacks of ague consists in a state of ill-defined
suffering, associated with a sallow skin, enlarged spleen and liver, and
sometimes with dropsy.
_Causation._--From the time of Hippocrates onwards the malarial or
periodical fevers have engaged the attention of innumerable observers,
who have suggested various theories of causation, and have sometimes
anticipated--vaguely, indeed, but with surprising accuracy--the results
of modern research; but the true nature of the disease remained in doubt
until the closing years of the 19th century. It has now been
demonstrated by a series of accurate investigations, contributed by many
workers, that malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite in the blood,
into which it is introduced by the bites of certain species of mosquito.
(See PARASITIC DISEASES and MOSQUITOES.)
History of Discovery.
The successive steps by which the present position has been reached form
an interesting chapter in the history of scientific progress. The first
substantial link in the actual chain of discovery was contributed in
1880 by Laveran, a French army surgeon serving in Algeria. On the 6th of
November in that year he plainly saw the living parasites under the
microscope in the blood of a malarial patient, and he shortly afterwards
communicated his observations to the Paris Académie de Médecine. They
were confirmed, but met with little acceptance in the scientific world,
which was preoccupied with the claims of a subsequently discredited
Bacillus malariae. In 1885 the Italian pathologists came round to
Laveran's views, and began to work out the life history of his
parasites. The subject has a special interest for Italy, which is
devastated by malaria, and Italian science has contributed materially to
the solution of the problem. The labours of Golgi, Marchiafava, Celli
and others established the nature of the parasite and its behaviour in
the blood; they proved the fact, guessed by Rasori so far back as 1846,
that the periodical febrile paroxysm corresponds with the development of
the organisms; and they showed that the different forms of malarial
fever have their distinct parasites, and consequently fall into distinct
groups, defined on an etiological as well as a clinical basis--namely,
the mild or spring group, which includes tertian and quartan ague, and
the malignant or "aestivo-autumnal" group, which includes a tertian or a
semi-tertian and the true quotidian type. Three distinct parasites,
corresponding with the tertian, quartan and malignant types of fever,
have been described by Italian observers, and the classification is
generally accepted; intermediate types are ascribed to mixed and
multiple infections. So far, however, only half the problem, and from
the practical point of view the less important half, had been solved.
The origin of the parasite and its mode of introduction into the blood
remained to be discovered. An old popular belief current in different
countries, and derived from common observation, connected mosquitoes
with malaria, and from time to time this theory found support in more
scientific quarters on general grounds, but it lacked demonstration and
attracted little attention. In 1894, however, Sir Patrick Manson,
arguing with greater precision by analogy from his own discovery of the
cause of filariasis and the part played by mosquitoes, suggested that
the malarial parasite had a similar intermediate host outside the human
body, and that a suctorial insect, which would probably be found to be a
particular mosquito, was required for its development. Following up this
line of investigation, Major Ronald Ross in 1895 found that if a
mosquito sucked blood containing the parasites they soon began to throw
out flagellae, which broke away and became free; and in 1897 he
discovered peculiar pigmented cells, which afterwards turned out to be
the parasites of aestivo-autumnal malaria in an early stage of
development, within the stomach-wall of mosquitoes which had been fed on
malarial blood. He further found that only mosquitoes of the genus
_Anopheles_ had these cells, and that they did not get them when fed on
healthy blood. Then, turning his attention to the malaria of birds, he
worked out the life-history of these cells within the body of the
mosquito. "He saw that they increased in size, divided, and became full
of filiform spores, then ruptured and poured out their multitudinous
progeny into the body-cavity of their insect host. Finally, he saw the
spores accumulate within the cells of the salivary glands, and
discovered that they actually passed down the salivary ducts and along
the grooved hypopharynx into the seat of puncture, thus causing
infection in a fresh vertebrate host" (Sambon). To apply these
discoveries to the malaria of man was an obvious step. In working out
the details the Italian school have again taken a prominent part.
Experiment.
Thus we get a complete scientific demonstration of the causation of
malaria in three stages: (1) the discovery of the parasite by Laveran;
(2) its life-history in the human host and connexion with the fever
demonstrated by the Italian observers; (3) its life-history in the
alternate host, and the identification of the latter with a particular
species of mosquito by Ross and Manson. The conclusions derived from the
microscopical laboratory were confirmed by actual experiment. In 1898 it
was conclusively shown in Italy that if a mosquito of the _Anopheles_
variety bites a person suffering from malaria, and is kept long enough
for the parasite to develop in the salivary gland, and is then allowed
to bite a healthy person, the latter will in due time develop malaria.
The converse proposition, that persons efficiently protected from
mosquito bites escape malaria, has been made the subject of several
remarkable experiments. One of the most interesting was carried out in
1900 for the London School of Tropical Medicine by Dr Sambon and Dr Low,
who went to reside in one of the most malarious districts in the Roman
Campagna during the most dangerous season. Together with Signor Terzi
and two Italian servants, they lived from the beginning of July until
the 19th of October in a specially protected hut, erected near Ostia.
The sole precaution taken was to confine themselves between sunset and
sunrise to their mosquito-proof dwelling. All escaped malaria, which was
rife in the immediate neighbourhood. Mosquitoes caught by the
experimenters, and sent to London, produced malaria in persons who
submitted themselves to the bites of these insects at the London School
of Tropical Medicine. Experiments in protection on a larger scale, and
under more ordinary conditions, have been carried out with equal success
by Professor Celli and other Italian authorities. The first of these was
in 1899, and the subjects were the railwaymen employed on certain lines
running through highly malarious districts. Of 24 protected persons, all
escaped but four, and these had to be out at night or otherwise
neglected precautions; of 38 unprotected persons, all contracted malaria
except two, who had apparently acquired immunity. In 1900 further
experiments gave still better results. Of 52 protected persons on one
line, all escaped except two, who were careless; of 52 protected on
another line, all escaped; while of 51 unprotected persons, living in
alternate houses, all suffered except seven. Out of a total of 207
persons protected in these railway experiments, 197 escaped. In two
peasants' cottages in the Campagna, protected with wire netting by
Professor Celli, all the inmates--10 in number--escaped, while the
neighbours suffered severely; and three out of four persons living in a
third hut, from which protection was removed owing to the indifference
of the inmates, contracted malaria. In the malarious islet of Asinara a
pond of stagnant water was treated with petroleum and all windows were
protected with gauze. The result was that the houses were free from
mosquitoes and no malaria occurred throughout the entire season, though
there had been 40 cases in the previous year. Eight Red Cross
ambulances, each with a doctor and attendant, were sent into the most
malarious parts of the Campagna in 1900. By living in protected houses
and wearing gloves and veils at night all the staff escaped malaria
except one or two attendants. These and other experiments, described by
Dr Manson in the _Practitioner_ for March 1900, confirming the
laboratory evidence as they do, leave no doubt whatever of the
correctness of the mosquito-parasitic theory of malaria.
It is possible, though not probable, that malaria may also be contracted
in some other way than by mosquito bite, but there are no
well-authenticated facts which require any other theory for their
explanation. The alleged occurrence of the disease in localities free
from mosquitoes or without their agency is not well attested; its
absence from other localities where they abound is accounted for by
their being of an innocent species, or--as in England--free from the
parasite. The old theory of paludism or of a noxious miasma exhaled from
the ground is no longer necessary. The broad facts on which it is based
are sufficiently accounted for by the habits of mosquitoes. For
instance, the swampy character of malarial areas is explained by their
breeding in stagnant water; the effect of drainage, and the general
immunity of high-lying, dry localities, by the lack of breeding
facilities; the danger of the night air, by their nocturnal habits; the
comparative immunity of the upper storeys of houses, by the fact that
they fly low; the confinement of malaria to well-marked areas and the
diminution of danger with distance, by their habit of clinging to the
breeding-grounds and not flying far. Similarly, the subsidence of
malaria during cold weather and its seasonal prevalence find an adequate
explanation in the conditions governing insect life. At the same time it
should be remembered that many points await elucidation, and it is
unwise to assume conclusions in advance of the evidence.
Parasites.
With regard to the parasites, which are the actual cause of malaria in
man, an account of them is given under the heading of PARASITIC
DISEASES, and little need be said about them here. They belong to the
group of Protozoa, and, as already explained, have a double cycle of
existence: (1) a sexual cycle in the body of the mosquito, (2) an
asexual cycle in the blood of human beings. They occupy and destroy the
red corpuscles, converting the haemoglobin into melanin; they multiply
in the blood by sporulation, and produce accessions of fever by the
liberation of a toxin at the time of sporulation (Ross). The number in
the blood in an acute attack is reckoned by Ross to be not less than 250
millions. A more general and practical interest attaches to the insects
which act as their intermediate hosts. These mosquitoes or gnats--the
terms are synonymous--belong to the family _Culicidae_ and the genus
_Anopheles_, which was first classified by Meigen in 1818. It has a wide
geographical distribution, being found in Europe (including England),
Asia Minor, Burma, Straits Settlements, Java, China, Formosa, Egypt;
west, south and Central Africa; Australia, South America, West Indies,
United States and Canada, but is generally confined to local centres in
those countries. About fifty species are recognized at present. It is
believed that all of them may serve as hosts of the parasite. The
species best known in connexion with malaria are _A. maculipennis_
(Europe and America), _A. funestus_ and _A. costales_ (Africa). In
colour _Anopheles_ is usually brownish or slaty, but sometimes buff, and
the thorax frequently has a dark stripe on each side. The wings in
nearly all species have a dappled or speckled appearance, owing to the
occurrence of blotches on the front margin and to the arrangement of the
scales covering the veins in alternating light and dark patches
(Austen). The genus with which _Anopheles_ is most likely to be
confounded is _Culex_, which is the commonest of all mosquitoes, has a
world-wide distribution, and is generally a greedy blood-sucker. A
distinctive feature is the position assumed in resting; _Culex_ has a
humpbacked attitude, while in _Anopheles_ the proboscis, head and body
are in a straight line, and in many species inclined at an angle to the
wall, the tail sticking outwards. In the female of _Culex_ the palpi are
much shorter than the proboscis; in _Anopheles_ they are of the same
length. The wings in _Culex_ have not the same dappled appearance.
_Anopheles_ is also a more slender insect, with a smaller head, narrower
body and thinner legs. There are further differences in the other stages
of life. Mosquitoes go through four phases: (1) ovum, (2) larva, (3)
nympha, (4) complete insect. The ova of _Anopheles_ are tiny black
rod-shaped objects, which are deposited on the water of natural puddles,
ponds, or slowly moving streams, by preference those which are well
supplied with vegetation; they float, singly or attached to other
objects or clustered together in patterns. They can live in brackish and
even in sea water. The larva has no breathing-tube, and floats
horizontally at the surface, except when feeding; it does not frequent
sewage or foul water. The ova of _Culex_, on the other hand, are
deposited in any stagnant water, including cesspools, drains, cisterns,
or water collected in any vessel; they float in boat-shaped masses on
the surface. The larva has a breathing-tube, and floats head downwards;
when disturbed it wriggles to the bottom (Christy). Some observers
maintain that _Anopheles_ does not "sing," like the common mosquito, and
its bite is much less irritating. Only the females suck blood; the act
is believed to be necessary for fertilization and reproduction.
_Anopheles_ rarely bites by day, and then only in dark places. In the
daytime "the gorged females rest motionless on the walls and ceilings of
rooms, choosing always the darkest situations for this purpose"
(Austen). In temperate climates the impregnated females hibernate during
the winter in houses, cellars, stables, the trunks of trees, &c., coming
out to lay their eggs in the spring. The four phases are passed in
thirty days in a favourable season, and consequently there are
ordinarily four or five generations from April to September (Celli).
The most important question raised by the mosquito-parasitic theory of
malaria is that of prevention. This may be considered under two heads:
(1) individual prophylaxis; (2) administrative prevention on a large
scale.
Prophylaxis.
(1) In the first place, common sense suggests the avoidance, in
malarious countries, of unhealthy situations, and particularly the
neighbourhood of stagnant water. Among elements of unhealthiness is next
to be reckoned the proximity of native villages, the inhabitants of
which are infected. In the tropics "no European house should be located
nearer to a native village than half a mile" (Manson), and, since
children are almost universally infected, "the presence of young natives
in the house should be absolutely interdicted" (Manson). When unhealthy
situations cannot be avoided, they may be rendered more healthy by
destroying the breeding-grounds of mosquitoes in the neighbourhood. All
puddles and collections of water should be filled in or drained; as a
temporary expedient they may be treated with petroleum, which prevents
the development of the larvae. When a place cannot be kept free from
mosquitoes the house may be protected, as in the experiments in Italy,
by wire gauze at the doors and windows. The arrangement used for the
entrance is a wire cage with double doors. Failing such protection
mosquito curtains should be used. Mosquitoes in the house may be
destroyed by the fumes of burning sulphur or tobacco smoke. According to
the experiments of Celli and Casagrandi, these are the most effective
culicides; when used in sufficient quantity they kill mosquitoes in one
minute. The same authorities recommend a powder, composed of larvicide
(an aniline substance), chrysanthemum flowers, and valerian root, to be
burnt in bedrooms. Anointing the skin with strong-smelling substances is
of little use in the open air, but more effective in the house;
turpentine appears to be the best. Exposure at night should be avoided.
All these prophylactic measures are directed against mosquitoes. There
remains the question of protection against the parasite. Chills are
recognized as predisposing both to primary infection and to relapses,
and malnutrition is also believed to increase susceptibility; both
should therefore be avoided. Then a certain amount of immunity may be
acquired by the systematic use of quinine. Manson recommends five to ten
grains once or twice a week; Ross recommends the same quantity every day
before breakfast. There is some evidence that arsenic has a prophylactic
effect. An experiment made on the railway staff at Bovino, a highly
malarious district on the Adriatic, gave a striking result. The number
of persons was 78, and they were divided into two equal groups of 39
each. One group was treated with arsenic, and of these 36 escaped
altogether, while three had mild attacks; the remaining 39 who were not
treated, all had fever. In a more extended experiment on 657 railwaymen
402 escaped. This was in 1889; but in spite of the encouraging results
the use of arsenic does not appear to have made any further progress.
Experiments in immunizing by sero-therapeutic methods have not as yet
met with success.
Administrative Measures.
(2) Much attention has been directed in scientific circles to the
possibility of "stamping out" epidemic malaria by administrative
measures. The problem is one of great practical importance, especially
to the British Empire. There are no data for estimating the damage
inflicted by malaria in the British colonies. It is, indeed, quite
incalculable. In Italy the annual mortality from this cause averages
15,000, which is estimated to represent two million cases of sickness
and a consequent loss of several million francs. In British tropical
possessions the bill is incomparably heavier. There is not only the
heavy toll in life and health exacted from Europeans, but the virtual
closing of enormous tracts of productive country which would otherwise
afford scope for British enterprise. The "deadly" climates, to which so
much dread attaches, generally mean malaria, and the mastery of this
disease would be equivalent to the addition of vast and valuable areas
to the empire. The problem, therefore, is eminently one for the
statesman and administrator. A solution may be sought in several
directions, suggested by the facts already explained. The existence of
the parasite is maintained by a vicious interchange between its
alternate hosts, mosquitoes and man, each infecting the other. If the
cycle be broken at any point the parasite must die out, assuming that it
has no other origin or mode of existence. The most effective step would
obviously be the extermination of the _Anopheles_ mosquito. A great deal
may be done towards this end by suppressing their breeding-places, which
means the drying of the ground. It is a question for the engineer, and
may require different methods in different circumstances. Put
comprehensively, it involves the control of the subsoil and surface
waters by drainage, the regulation of rivers and floods, suitable
agriculture, the clearing of forests or jungles, which tend to increase
the rainfall and keep the ground swampy.
The city of Rome is an example of what can be done by drainage; situated
in the midst of malaria, it is itself quite healthy. Recent reports also
show us how much may be done in infected districts. At Ismailia malaria
was reduced from 1551 cases in 1902 to 37 cases in 1905. The cost of
operations amounted to an initial expenditure of 6.25 francs, and an
annual expenditure of about 2.3 francs per head of the population. "The
results are due to mosquito reduction together with cinchonization." The
following is a tabulated list of the cases. The population of Ismailia
is about 6000.
+------------------+------+------+-------+------+------+--------+
| Year | 1900 | 1901 | 1902* | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 |
+------------------+------+------+-------+------+------+--------+
| Cases of Malaria | 2250 | 1990 | 1548 | 214 | 90 | 372[2] |
+------------------+------+------+-------+------+------+--------+
* Drainage works begun.
Klang and Port Swettenham are contiguous towns in the Federated Malay
States, having a population of 4000 and a rainfall of 100 in. a year. At
Klang the expenditure has been £3100, with an annual expenditure of
£270, devoted to clearing and draining 332 acres. At Port Swettenham
£7000, with an annual upkeep of £240, has been devoted to treating 110
acres. In Hong-Kong similar measures were carried out, with the result
that the hospital admissions for malaria diminished from 1294 in 1901,
the year when operations were begun, to 419 in 1905.
Klang and Port Swettenham.
+------------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+
| Year | 1900 | 1901* | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 |
+------------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+
| Cases of Malaria | 510 | 610 | 199 | 69 | 32 | 23 |
+------------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+
* Nearly all were relapses of previous infection.
A systematic campaign for the destruction of breeding-places has been
inaugurated in the British West African colonies, with encouraging
results. The planting of eucalyptus trees is out of favour at present,
but it appears to have been successful in Portugal, not from any
prophylactic virtues in the plant, but through the great absorption of
moisture by its deep roots, which tends to dry the subsoil. Treating the
breeding-ponds with petroleum or similar preparations seems to be hardly
applicable on a large scale, and in any case can only be a temporary
expedient. H. Ziemann advocates the destruction of mosquito larvae by
the growing of such plants as the water-pest (_Anacharis alsinatrum_)
which covers the surface of the water and suffocates larvae and nymphae.
Short of suppressing mosquitoes, the parasitic cycle may theoretically
be broken by preventing them from giving the infection to man or taking
it from him. The means of accomplishing the former have been already
pointed out, but they are obviously difficult to carry out on a large
scale, particularly in native communities. It is one thing to protect
individuals from mosquito bites, another to prevent the propagation of
the parasite in a whole community. Perhaps the converse is more feasible
in some circumstances--that is to say, preventing mosquitoes from having
access to malarial persons, and so propagating the parasite in
themselves. It could be carried out where the infected persons are few,
by isolating and protecting them, but not where many are infected, as in
native villages. Koch has suggested that the disinfection of malarial
persons by quinine would have the desired effect, but other authorities
of greater experience do not consider it practicable. In spite of the
difficulties, however, there is no doubt that a great deal can be done
to reduce, if not stamp out, malaria by the methods indicated, which
should be applied according to circumstances. An encouraging example is
afforded by the remarkable fact that malaria, which was once rife in
certain districts of England, has now died out, although the _Anopheles
maculipennis_ mosquito still exists there. The parasitic cycle has been
broken, and the insect is no longer infected. The suggested causes are
(1) reduction of insects by drainage, (2) reduced population, (3) the
use of quinine. Sir Patrick Manson has suggested that the problem of
stamping out malaria may be assisted by the discovery of some at present
unknown factors. He has pointed out that certain areas and certain
islands are entirely free from the disease, while neighbouring areas and
islands are devastated. This immunity is apparently not due to the
absence of favourable conditions, but rather to the presence of some
inimical factor which prevents the development of the parasite. If this
factor could be discovered it might be applied to the suppression of the
disease in malarious localities.
A few other points may be noted. The pathological changes in malaria are
due to the deposition of melanin and the detritus of red corpuscles and
haemoglobin, and to the congregation of parasites in certain sites
(Ross). In chronic cases the eventual effects are anaemia, melanosis,
enlargement of the spleen and liver, and general cachexia. Apparently
the parasites may remain quiescent in the blood for years and may cause
relapses by fresh sporulation. Recent discoveries have done little or
nothing for treatment. Quinine still remains the one specific. In
serious cases it should not be given in solid form, but in solution by
the stomach, rectum, or--better--hypodermically (Manson). According to
Ross, it should be given promptly, in sufficient doses (up to 30
grains), and should be continued for months. Euquinine is by some
preferred to quinine, but it is more expensive. Nucleogen and Aristochin
have also been recommended instead of quinine. The nature of immunity is
not known. Some persons are naturally absolutely immune (Celli), but
this is rare; immunity is also sometimes acquired by infection, but as a
rule persons once infected are more predisposed than others. Races
inhabiting malarious districts acquire a certain degree of resistance,
no doubt through natural selection. Children are much more susceptible
than adults.
_Malaria in the Lower Vertebrates._--Birds are subject to malaria, which
is caused by blood parasites akin to those in man and having a similar
life-history. Two species, affecting different kinds of birds, have been
identified. Their alternate hosts are mosquitoes of the _Culex_ genus.
Oxen, sheep, dogs, monkeys, bats, and probably horses also suffer from
similar parasitic diseases. In the case of oxen the alternate host of
the parasite is a special tick (Smith and Kilborne). In the other
animals several parasites have been described by different observers,
but the alternate hosts are not known.
AUTHORITIES.--Celli, _Malaria_; Christy, _Mosquitoes and Malaria_;
Manson, _Tropical Diseases_; Allbutt's _System of Medicine_; Ross,
"Malaria," Quain's _Dictionary of Medicine_, 3rd ed.; _The
Practitioner_, March, 1901 (Malaria Number); _Lancet_ (Sept. 29,
1907); _British Medical Journal_ (Oct. 19, 1907); _Indian Medical
Gazette_ (February 1908). (A. Sl.; H. L. H.)
MALATIA (MALATIEH or ASPUZU) the chief town of a sanjak of the same name
in the Mamuret el-Aziz vilayet of Asia Minor, and a military station on
the Samsun-Sivas-Diarbekr road, altitude 2900 ft., situated about 10 m.
S.W. of the junction of the Tokhma Su (med. Kubakib) with the Euphrates,
near the south end of a fertile plain, and at the northern foot of the
Taurus. Pop. about 30,000, including, besides many Armenian Christians,
bodies of Kurds and "Kizilbash." It is a wholly modern place, rebuilt
since the earthquake of 1893, contains fine public buildings, and is
noted for its fruit orchards. There are Protestant (American) and Roman
Catholic missions, and an Armenian Catholic archbishop has his seat
here. Eskishehr or Old Malatia (_Melitene_), 5 m. N.E. and 3 m. from the
great medieval bridge (Kirkgeuz) over the Tokhma Su, is said to owe its
present desolation largely to its occupation by Hafiz Pasha as his
headquarters in 1838 before his advance to fight the disastrous battle
of Nizib with the Egyptian, Ibrahim. But it has still many inhabitants
and large gardens and many ruinous mosques, baths, &c., relics of
Mansur's city. It was the residence of von Moltke for some months, while
attached to Hafiz's army. The earliest site was possibly Arslan Tepe
about 2 m. south of Eskishehr were two "Hittite" stelae, representing
hunting scenes, now in the Constantinople and Paris museums, were found
in 1894.
In the time of Strabo (xii. 537) there was no town in the district of
Melitene, which was reckoned part of Cappadocia. Under Titus the place
became the permanent station of the 12th ("Thundering") legion; Trajan
raised it to a city. Lying in a very fertile country at the crossing
point of important routes, including the Persian "Royal Road," and two
imperial military highways from Caesarea and along the Euphrates bank,
it grew in size and importance, and was the capital of Armenia Minor
or Secunda. Justinian, who completed the walls commenced by
Anastasius, made it the capital of Armenia Tertia; it was then a very
great place (Procop., _De aed._, iii. 4). The town was burnt by
Chosroes on his retreat after his great defeat there in 577. Taken by
the Saracens, retaken and destroyed by Constantine Copronymus, it was
presently recovered to Islam, and rebuilt under Mansur (A.D. 756). It
again changed hands more than once, being reckoned among the frontier
towns of Syria (Istakhry, pp. 55, 62). At length the Greeks recovered
it in 934, and Nicephorus II., finding the district much wasted,
encouraged the Jacobites to settle in it, which they did in great
numbers. A convent of the Virgin, and the great church which bears his
name, were erected by the bishop Ignatius (Isaac the Runner). From
this time Malatia continued to be a great seat of the Jacobites, and
it was the birthplace of their famous maphrian Barhebraeus (or
Abulfaragius). At the commencement of the 11th century the population
was said to number 60,000 fighting men (Assem., _Bib. Or._, ii. 149;
cf. Barheb., _Chr. Eccl._, i. 411, 423). At the time of the first
crusade, the city, being hard pressed by the Turks under Ibn
Danishmend, was relieved by Baldwin, after Bohemund had failed and
lost his liberty in the attempt. But the Jacobites had no cause to
love Byzantium, and the Greek governor Gabriel was so cruel and
faithless that the townsmen were soon glad to open their gates to Ibn
Danishmend (1102), and the city subsequently became part of the realm
of Kilij Arslan, sultan of Iconium.
See H. C. B. v. Moltke, _Briefe über Zustände, &c. in der Türkei_
(1835-1839). (D. G. H.)
MALAYALAM, a language of the Dravidian family, spoken on the west coast
of southern India. It is believed to have developed out of Tamil as
recently as the 9th century. It possesses a large literature, in which
words borrowed from Sanskrit are conspicuous. In 1901 the total number
of speakers of Malayalam in all India was just about six millions.
MALAY ARCHIPELAGO[1] (variously called _Malaysia_, the _Indian
Archipelago_, the _East Indies_, _Indonesia_, _Insulinde_), the largest
group of islands in the world, lying south-east of Asia and north and
north-west of Australia. It includes the Sunda Islands, the Moluccas,
New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands, but excludes the Andaman-Nicobar
group. The equator passes through the middle of the archipelago; it
successively cuts Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes and Halmahera, four of the
most important islands. A. R. Wallace (who includes the Solomon Islands
as well as New Guinea in the group) points out that the archipelago
"includes two islands larger than Great Britain; and in one of them,
Borneo, the whole of the British Isles might be set down, and would be
surrounded by a sea of forests. Sumatra is about equal in extent to
Great Britain; Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of
Ireland. Eighteen more islands are on the average as large as Jamaica;
and more than a hundred are as large as the Isle of Wight."
+------------------------+---------+-----------------------+
| | Area. | Estimated Population. |
+------------------------+---------+-----------------------+
| Sunda Islands | 459,578 | 32,632,400 |
| Moluccas, with Celebes | 115,334 | 3,000,000 |
| New Guinea | 312,329 | 800,000 |
| Philippine Islands | 115,026 | 7,635,400 |
+------------------------+---------+-----------------------+
The islands of the archipelago nearly all present bold and picturesque
profiles against the horizon, and at the same time the character of the
scenery varies from island to island and even from district to district.
The mountains are arranged for the most part in lines running either
from north-west to south-east or from west to east. In Sumatra and in
the islands between Sumatra and Borneo the former direction is
distinctly marked, and the latter is equally noticeable in Java and the
other southern islands. The mountains of Borneo, however, rise rather in
short ridges and clusters. Nothing in the general physiognomy of the
islands is more remarkable than the number and distribution of the
volcanoes, active or extinct. Running south-east through Sumatra, east
through Java and the southern islands to Timor, curving north through
the Moluccas, and again north, from the end of Celebes through the whole
line of the Philippines, they follow a line roughly resembling a
horseshoe narrowed towards the point. The loftiest mountain in the
archipelago would appear to be Kinabalu in Borneo (13,698 ft.). An
important fact in the physical geography of the archipelago is that
Java, Bali, Sumatra and Borneo, and the lesser islands between them and
the Asiatic mainland, all rest on a great submerged bank, nowhere more
than 100 fathoms below sea-level, which may be considered a continuation
of the continent; while to the east the depth of the sea has been found
at various places to be from 1000 to 2500 fathoms. As the value of this
fact was particularly emphasized by Wallace, the limit of the shallow
water, which is found in the narrow but deep channel between Bali and
Lombok, and strikes north to the east of Borneo, has received the name
of "Wallace's Line." The Philippines on the other hand, "are almost
surrounded by deep sea, but are connected with Borneo by means of two
narrow submarine banks" (A. R. Wallace, _Island Life_). The archipelago,
in effect, is divided between two great regions, the Asiatic and the
Australian, and the fact is evident in various branches of its
geography--zoological, botanical, and even human. It is believed that
there was a land-connexion between Asia and Australia in the later part
of the Secondary epoch, and that the Australian continent, when
separated, became divided into islands before the south-eastern part of
the Asiatic did so.
The most notable fact in the geological history of the archipelago is
the discovery in Java of the fossil remains of _Pithecanthropus
erectus_, a form intermediate between the higher apes and man. In its
structure and cranial capacity it is entitled to a higher place in the
zoological scale than any anthropoid, for it almost certainly walked
erect; and, on the other hand, in its intellectual powers it must have
been much below the lowest of the human race at present known. The
strata in which it was found belong to the Miocene or Upper Pliocene.
Among the rocks of economic importance may be mentioned granite of
numerous kinds, syenite, serpentine, porphyry, marble, sandstones and
marls. Coal is worked in Sumatra, Borneo and Labuan. Diamonds are
obtained in Borneo, garnets in Sumatra, Bachian and Timor, and topazes
in Bachian, antimony in Borneo and the Philippines; lead in Sumatra,
Borneo and the Philippines; copper and malachite in the Philippines,
Timor, Borneo and Sumatra; and, most important of all, tin in Banka,
Billiton and Singkep. Iron is pretty frequent in various forms. Gold
is not uncommon in the older ranges of Sumatra, Banka, Celebes,
Bachian, Timor and Borneo. Manganese could be readily worked in Timor,
where it lies in the Carboniferous Limestone. Platinum is found in
Landak and other parts of Borneo. Petroleum is a valuable product of
Sumatra and Java, and is also found in Borneo.
_Climate_, _Flora_, _Fauna._--The most striking general fact as regards
climate in the archipelago is that wherever that part of the south-east
monsoon which has passed over Australia strikes, the climate is
comparatively dry, and the vegetation is less luxuriant. The east end of
Java, e.g. has a less rainfall than the west; the distribution of the
rain on the north coast is quite different from that on the south, and a
similar difference is observed between the east and the west of Celebes.
The north-west monsoon, beginning in October and lasting till March,
brings the principal rainy season in the archipelago.
Most of the islands of the archipelago belong to the great equatorial
forest-belt. In its economical aspect the vegetation, whether natural
or cultivated, is of prime interest. The list of fruits is very
extensive, though few of them are widely known. These, however,
include the orange, mango, mangosteen, shaddock, guava and the durian.
The variety of food-plants is equally notable. Not only are rice and
maize, sugar and coffee, among the widely cultivated crops, but the
coco-nut, the bread-fruit, the banana and plantain, the sugar-palm,
the tea-plant, the sago-palm, the coco-tree, the ground-nut, the yam,
the cassava, and others besides, are of practical importance. The
cultivation of sugar and coffee owes its development mainly to the
Dutch; and to them also is due the introduction of tea. They have
greatly encouraged the cultivation of the coco-nut among the natives,
and it flourishes, especially in the coast districts, in almost every
island in their territory. The oil is largely employed in native
cookery. Pepper, nutmegs and cloves were long the objects of the most
important branch of Dutch commerce; and gutta-percha, camphor, dammar,
benzoin and other forest products have a place among the exports.
To the naturalist the Malay Archipelago is a region of the highest
interest; and from an early period it has attracted the attention of
explorers of the first rank. The physical division between the Asiatic
and Australian regions is clearly reflected in the botany and zoology.
The flora of the Asiatic islands (thus distinguished) "is a special
development of that prevailing from the Himalayas to the Malay
Peninsula and south China. Farther east this flora intermingles with
that of Australia" (F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_). Similarly, in
the Asiatic islands are found the great mammals of the continent--the
elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, anthropoid ape, &c., which are wanting
in the Australian region, with which the eastern part of the
archipelago is associated. (For details concerning flora and fauna,
see separate articles, especially JAVA.)
[Illustration: Map of Malay Archipelago.]
_Inhabitants._--The majority of the native inhabitants of the Malay
Archipelago belong to two races, the Malays and the Melanesians
(Papuans). As regards the present racial distribution, the view accepted
by many anthropologists, following A. H. Keane, is that the Negritos,
still found in the Philippines, are the true aborigines of Indo-China
and western Malaysia, while the Melanesians, probably their kinsmen,
were the earliest occupants of eastern Malaysia and western Polynesia.
At some date long anterior to history it is supposed that Indo-China was
occupied first by a fair Caucasian people and later by a yellow
Mongolian race. From these two have come all the peoples--other than
Negrito or Papuan--found to-day from the Malay Peninsula to the farthest
islands of Polynesia. The Malay Archipelago was thus first invaded by
the Caucasians, who eventually passed eastward and are to-day
represented in the Malay Archipelago only by the Mentawi islanders. They
were followed by an immigration of Mongol-Caucasic peoples with a
preponderance of Caucasic blood--the Indonesians of some, the pre-Malays
of other writers--who are to-day represented in the archipelago by such
peoples as the Dyaks of Borneo and the Battas of Sumatra. At a far later
date, probably almost within historic times, the true Malay race, a
combination of Mongol and Caucasic elements, came into existence and
overran the archipelago, in time becoming the dominant race. A Hindu
strain is evident in Java and others of the western islands; Moors and
Arabs (that is, as the names are used in the archipelago, Mahommedans
from various countries between Arabia and India) are found more or less
amalgamated with many of the Malay peoples; and the Chinese form, from
an economical point of view, one of the most important sections of the
community in many of the more civilized districts. Chinese have been
established in the archipelago from a very early date: the first Dutch
invaders found them settled at Jacatra; and many of them, as, for
instance, the colony of Ternate, have taken so kindly to their new home
that they have acquired Malay to the disuse of their native tongue.
Chinese tombs are among the objects that strike the traveller's
attention at Amboyna and other ancient settlements.
There is a vast field for philological explorations in the
archipelago. Of the great number of distinct languages known to exist,
few have been studied scientifically. The most widely distributed is
the Malay, which has not only been diffused by the Malays themselves
throughout the coast regions of the various islands, but, owing partly
to the readiness with which it can be learned, has become the common
medium between the Europeans and the natives. The most cultivated of
the native tongues is the Javanese, and it is spoken by a greater
number of people than any of the others. To it Sundanese stands in the
relation that Low German holds to High German, and the Madurese in the
relation of a strongly individualized dialect. Among the other
languages which have been reduced to writing and grammatically
analysed are the Balinese, closely connected with the Javanese, the
Batta (with its dialect the Toba), the Dyak and the Macassarese.
Alfurese, a vague term meaning in the mouths of the natives little
else than non-Mahommedan, has been more particularly applied by Dutch
philologists to the native speech of certain tribes in Celebes. The
commercial activity of the Buginese causes their language to be fairly
widely spoken--little, however, by Europeans.
_Political Division._--Politically the whole of the archipelago, except
British North Borneo, &c. (see BORNEO), part of Timor (Portuguese), New
Guinea east of the 141st meridian (British and German), and the
Philippine Islands, belongs to the Netherlands. The Philippine Islands
which had been for several centuries a Spanish possession, passed in
1898 by conquest to the United States of America. For these several
political units see the separate articles; a general view, however, is
here given of the government, economic conditions, &c., of the Dutch
possessions, which the Dutch call _Nederlandsch-Indië_.