What disease did Europeans use quinine to protect themselves from when they colonized Africa?

1.For details, see Deb Roy, “Mal-areas of Health;” and Worboys, “Germs, Malaria and the Invention of Mansonian Tropical Medicine,” 186–8. For a recent work on the management of malaria in twentieth-century British India, see Bhattacharya, “The Logic of Location,” 183–202.

2.For perceived shifts in the geographies of malaria, see, for instance, Fayrer, “Malaria,” 16–17.

3.For instance, Home Department (henceforth Home), Sanitary Branch (henceforth Sanitary), August 1882, 97–103 A. “Report on Epidemic Remittent and Intermittent fever occurred in the city of Amritsar fever in the Autumn of 1881” (NAI). See also, Mukhopadhyay, Saral Jvara Chitiksa, 103–6.

4.General Department, Industry and Science Branch, 5 July 1872. Dated Calcutta, 6 July 1872, J. Ware Edgage, Officiating Junior Secretary to the Government of Bengal to Inspector General of Hospitals, Lower Provinces. (West Bengal State Archives, henceforth WBSA.)

5.See Deb Roy, “ ‘An Unseen, Awful Visitant’,” 64–6.

6.Deb Roy, “On Quinine and Questions of Authority.”

7.See Drayton, Nature's Government, especially 208–20.

8.Ibid.

9.Home, Medical Branch (henceforth Medical), January 1889, 38–41 A. No. 43c, dated Mungpoo, 2 July 1888. J. A. Gammie, to Secretary, Government of Bengal, Financial Department (NAI); Finance Department, Miscellaneous Branch, File M Q/1, Pros 1–13 August 1888. No. 28 Q dated Calcutta, 18 February 1888. George King to the Secretary, Government of Bengal, Financial Department (WBSA).

10.Revenue and Agriculture Department (henceforth Revenue and Agriculture), Agriculture Branch (henceforth Agriculture). April 1892. 12 A. No. 399, dated 19 January 1892, the Civil Surgeon, Akyab to the Secretary and Engineer, Akyab Municipality; Home, Medical, October 1909, 131–5 A. No. 206, dated 20 July 1909. B. L. Kabra to W. R. Edwards, Superintending Surgeon, Poonch State, Gulmarg (NAI).

11.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, 44–71 A, September 1908. Dated 20 May 1906, A note from J. C. Fergusson (NAI).

12.Revenue and Agriculture, Economic Products Branch, April 1896, 10–12 C (NAI); Revenue and Agriculture Department, Agriculture Branch, 44–71 A, September 1908, Dated 25 July 1907. W. R. Dustan, Imperial Institute, London to J. Wilson, Secretary, Government of India and dated 22 September 1907, Report drafted by C. A. Innes, p. 24 (NAI); Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, March 1912, 22 B. “Note on Cinchona policy” (NAI).

13.See, for instance, Home, Medical, October 1897, 285–97 A. “Enclosure No. 1,” Rangoon dated 30 October 1894 (NAI).

14.Home, Medical, July 1893, 59–63A. Dated Calcutta, 12 November 1892. E. Hutton, Post Master General, Bengal to All Postal Officials, Bengal Circle; Home, Medical, December 1895, 105–8 A. Dated 23 October 1895. Secretary, Government of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh to Postmaster General, North-Western Provinces; Home, Medical, March 1895, 16–18 A. Dated Rangoon, 30 October 1894. Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Burma in the General Department (NAI).

15.Home, Medical, August 1905, 67–8 A. Dated 22 June 1905. L. J. Kershaw, Officiating Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam to the Secretary, Government of India (NAI).

16.Home, Medical, July 1892, 38–40 A (NAI).

17.Ibid.

18.Revenue and Agriculture, Economic Products Branch, November 1897, 8 B. Dated Ootacamund, 31 August 1897. W. Standen, Director of the Government Cinchona Plantations, Nilgiris to Secretary to the Government, Revenue Department (NAI).

19.Home, Medical, November 1893, 78–9 B. Dated Madras, September 9 1892. Surgeon General W. F. Defabeck to the Secretary to Government, Revenue Department (NAI).

20.Home, Medical, September 1904, 49 B; Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, July 1892, 25–8 A. Dated Nungumbakum, 9 February 1892. W. F. deFabeck, Surgeon General, Madras to the Secretary, Government, Revenue Department; Home, Medical. March 1895, 16–18 A. Dated Rangoon, 30 October 1894. Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Burma in the General Department (NAI).

21.Home, Medical, July 1893, 55–8 A. “Enclosure no 2;” Home, Medical, October 1897, 285–97 A. Dated Rangoon, 14 August 1897. The Secretary, Government of Burma to the Secretary, Government of India. “Enclosure 4;” Home, Medical, October 1893. 29–31 A. Dated Darjeeling, 5 September 1893, J. A. Bourdillon, Secretary, Government of Bengal to the Secretary, Government of India (NAI); Home, Medical, September 1904, 49 B; Home, Medical. August 1905, 67–8 A. Dated 22 June 1905. Kershaw, to the Chief Commissioner of Assam (NAI).

22.For things-in-motion, see Appadurai, The Social Life of Things, 5. For commodity fetishism, see McClintock, Imperial Leather, 207–25.

23.Revenue and Agriculture, Economic Products Branch, September 1904, 7 A. “Notes,” Telegram from Secretary of State for India, dated 23 August 1904 (NAI).

24.Home, Medical, October 1903, 109–12 A. Dated 7 August 1903 Note by H. M. Kisch, Director General, Post Office; Home, Medical, July 1896. 144–5 A. Dated 10 June 1896. Note from A. U. Fanshawe and dated Simla, 15 July 1896. J. P. Hewett, Secretary, Government of India to the Chief Commissioner, Assam (NAI).

25.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, June 1905, 12 B (NAI).

26.“Sarvajvarankusha,” Education Gazette and Saptahik Vartabaha (9/3/1888): 733. [UJPL, 6/7, Hites Ranjan Sanyal Collections, henceforth, CSSSC].

27.Nandi, “Malaria Jvarey Dasyadi Pachan,” 70–2.

28.“Nalhati Pharmacy,” [Box 5/8, CSSSC].

29.“Noakhali Haldar and Co's famous Chaitanya Pills” [Box 5/2, CSSSC].

30.Bynum, “Mosquitoes Bite More Than Once,” 47–8. For a straightforward but detailed narrative, see Waller, The Discovery of the Germ.

31.The expression “fields of practice” had been attributed to the “leading Italian authority on malaria,” Professor Celli. Dated 30 September 1904, His Majesty's Secretary of State for India. No. 153 (Revenue). “Notes,” Home, Medical. June 1905. 200–4 A.

32.Being sensitive to the historical specificities which shaped medical knowledge about mosquitoes around the 1900s, this article distances itself from the methods adopted in significant ways by historical demographers and environmental historians like McNeill in his Mosquito Empires and Webb in Humanity's Burden, 32–49. See also, Dobson, “Marsh Fever.” These scholars have projected the association of malaria with anopheles mosquitoes as a timeless truth and have retrospectively explained early modern events and mortalities in light of contemporary knowledge about malaria. Such practice of deliberate anachronism requires specific skills. However, this article intends to raise and explore distinctly different questions.

33.Home, Medical, May 1899, 156–9 A. Dated Calcutta, 23 January 1899. Dr Daniel's Report to the Secretary of the Malaria Investigation Committee of the Royal Society, London; Rogers, “The Relationship of Water supply,” 474–6.

34.Home, Medical, December 1901, 69–72 A (NAI); Ross, Mosquito Brigades.

35.Ross, Mosquito Brigades, 69; For greater detail, see Swellengrebel, “How the Malaria Service in Indonesia Came Into Being,” 148–50; Western and Frenkel, “Pretext or Prophylaxis?” 214–17.

36.Home, Medical, December 1901, 69–72 A, Dated 2 October 1901. Ronald Ross to the Under Secretary of State for India (NAI).

37.Horsfield and Moore, A Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects.

38.Helfer, “On the Indigenous Silkworms of India.”

39.Chevers, A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India, 260, 350, 386, 564–7.

40.Holt, Why Not Eat Insects? 36–48.

41.Thompson, Report on Insects; Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, August 1894, 18–34 A (NAI); Atkinson, “On Pests Belonging to the Homopterous family,” 121–3; Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, April 1892, 29 B; Revenue and Agriculture, Economic Products Branch, October 1904, 10 A (NAI).

42.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, January 1895, 1–8 A. Dated Amgoorie, 13 October 1894. J. Buckingham, Chairman of the Assam Branch, Indian Tea Association to the Acting Secretary, Indian Tea Association (NAI).

43.Revenue and agriculture, Agriculture, November 1902, 2–5 A. “Notes” (NAI).

44.Revenue and Agriculture, Forests Branch, February 1901, 8–10 A (NAI).

45.Revenue and Agriculture, Economic Products Branch. February 1901, 1–2 A. Dated Madras, 31 August 1900. Secretary, United Planters’ Association of South India to the Secretary, Government of India (NAI).

46.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, October 1905, 11B (NAI).

47.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, November 1894, 8–12 A (NAI).

48.Home, Public Branch (henceforth Public), July 1890, 95–7 A (NAI).

49.Home, Medical, June 1909, 242–5 A. “Use of the Aquatic Plant “Azolla” for Mosquito Destruction;” Home, Sanitary, 150–2 A, July 1909. “Indent For a Consignment of a Fish Called Millions;” Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, September 1897, 3–5 A (NAI).

50.Ross, Mosquito Brigades, Vi, 88; For political implications of the deployments of military metaphors vis-à-vis insects, see Russell III, “Speaking of Annihilation.”

51.Anonymous, “The Malaria Expedition to West Africa,” 36–7; Home, Medical, July 1909, 56–7 A. “The Committee of the Liverpool School of tropical medicine” (NAI).

52.Home, Medical, June 1909, 242–5 A; Home, Sanitary, July 1909, 150–2 A; Home, Medical, December 1901, 69–72 A, Dated 2 October 1901, Ronald Ross to Under-Secretary of State for India; Home, Medical, April 1903, 2–3 A. Dated Bombay Castle, 17 March 1903 (NAI); Ross, Mosquito Brigades, 65, 74.

53.Home, Medical, April 1903, 2–3 A. Dated Bombay Castle, 17 March 1903 (NAI).

54.Home, Medical, September 1901, 139 A. Circular no. 2109A–S (NAI).

55.Ross, Mosquito Brigades, 72–3.

56.MacGregor, “The Fight Against Malaria,” 152–60; Ross, Mosquito Brigades, 64, 69, 70.

57.Ross, Mosquito Brigades, 61–3.

58.Rogers, “Special Report on Fever in Dinajpur district,” 51.

59.See, for instance, Mukhopadhyaya, Kankabati; Thakur, “Likhi Kichu Saddho Ki” (How shall I write?), [poem written in 1941] Rabindra Rachanabali, 55; Rabindranath Thakur, “Moshok Mangal Gitika,” (Ode to Mosquitoes), [poem written in 1940] Rabindra Rachanabali, 55–6.

60.Saphari, Mashari Rahasya; see also, Mukhopadhaya, Korakey kit.

61.Ray, Mashar Hul.

62.Bhattacharya, Moshar Juddha.

63.Mitra, “Mosha” (“Mosquitoes”). Originally published in the special Puja edition of Alpana (Deb Sahitya Kutir) in 1945. See also, Sengupta, “Sadhanbabu's Friends.”

64.Ray, “Kaduni” (“The Tearful”).

65.McCollom, “The Role of Insects,” 183.

66.Manson, “The Malaria Parasite,” 226–8.

67.Many senior officials associated with the “mosquito brigades” were not entirely convinced with Ross “discovery” in the early 1900s. See Bynum, “An Experiment that Failed.”

68.Anon., “Latent Malaria,” 100.

69.Manson, “The Diagnosis of Malaria,” 1378.

70.Anon., “The Diagnosis of Latent Malaria,” 768.

71.Ibid.

72.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes,” Proceedings of the Imperial Malaria Conference, October 1909, S. R. Christophers, “On malaria in the Punjab” and Dated Simla, 11 June 1909, J. T. W. Leslie to Secretary to the Government of India; Home, Sanitary, April 1910, 47–67 A. Dated 29 November 1909, A. W. Chaplin, Chairman, Duars Branch, Indian Tea Association to L. J. Kershaw, Financial Secretary to the Government (NAI).

73.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, July 1907, 38–48 A. “Report by Edward Buck On the Control and Utilisation of Rivers and Drainage for the Fertilisation of Land and the Mitigation of Malaria;” Home, Medical, September 1901, 139 A. Circular no. 2109A–S; Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. J. W. T. Leslie, “Malaria in India;” Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the General Malaria Committee at Madras November 1912, p. 13 (Asiatic Society Calcutta).

74.Home, Medical, September 1901, 139 A. Circular no. 2109A–S (NAI).

75.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, July 1907, 38–48 A. “Report by Edward Buck” (NAI).

76.Home, Sanitary (henceforth Home, Sanitary) May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes,” Proceedings of the Imperial Malaria Conference (henceforth Proceedings), October 1909. J. T. W. Leslie, “Malaria in India” (NAI).

77.Ibid.; S. R. Christophers, “On malaria in the Punjab;” Home, Sanitary, April 1910, 47–67 A. Dated 29 November 1909, A. W. Chaplin, Chairman, Duars Branch, Indian Tea Association to L. J. Kershaw, Financial Secretary to the Government (NAI).

78.Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the General Malaria Committee at Madras November 1912, p. 13 (Asiatic Society Calcutta).

79.Rogers, “Special Report on Fever,” 41, 48–9.

80.Home, Medical, 42 A, April 1904. Dated 13 October 1903, T. E. Tuson, Officiating Superintendent of Port Blair to The Secretary to the Government of India (NAI).

81.Stephens and Christophers, “An Investigation Into the Factors Which Determine Malarial Endemicity,” 23–4.

82.Home, Medical, June 1905, 200–4 A. “Notes,” Ronald Ross, The Prevention of Malaria in India (NAI).

83.Anonynous, “Malaria Expedition to West Africa,” 36; See also Home, Medical, December 1901, 69–72 A. Dated 2 October 1901, Ronald Ross to Under Secretary of State for India (NAI).

84.Ibid.

85.See, for instance, Stephens and Christophers, “An Investigation into the Factors which Determine Malarial Endemicity,” 23–4.

86.Home, Medical, March 1904, 38–9 A. Dated 15 December 1903, B. Franklin to Secretary, Government of India; Howard, “Recent Important Anti-Malaria Work,” 746; Home, Medical, October 1904, 53–4 A (NAI).

87.Home, Medical, March 1904, 38–9 A. Dated 15 December 1903, Surgeon General B. Franklin to Secretary to the Government of India (NAI).

88.Howard, “Recent Important Anti-Malaria Work,” 746.

89.Home, Medical, October 1904, 53–4 A (NAI).

90.Ross, Mosquito Brigades, 72–3; Home, Medical, September 1901, 139 A. Circular no. 2109A–S (NAI); MacGregor, “The Fight Against Malaria,” 157.

91.Revenue and Agriculture Department, Famine Branch, February 1903, 6–7 A (NAI).

92.Wood, “Remark on the Subject of the Microorganisms on the Disease,” 60–2.

93.Home, Medical, September 1901, 139 A. Circular no. 2109A–S (NAI).

94.See note 69 above.

95.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes,” S. P. James, “Experimental Demonstration Camps,” Proceedings, 87 (NAI).

96.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes II,” Dated 17 February 10, from C. A. Innes and dated 3 February 2010, from A. T. Gage.

97.Revenue and Agriculture, Agriculture, February 1911, 37–9 A. “Notes,” Cutting from the “Civil and Military Gazette,” dated 3 November 1910 (NAI).

98.Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” 3.

99.Home Department, Jails Branch, January 1910, 11–15 A. Dated 18 March 1909, W. S. Hamilton, Officiating Secretary to the Government of Punjab, Home (Jails) Department to the Secretary to the Government of India (NAI).

100.Ibid. Dated 31 July 1907, G. F. W. Braide, Inspector General of Prisons, Punjab to All Superintendents of Jails in the Punjab.

101.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes” Leslie, “Malaria in India,” 4, 5, 9 (NAI).

102.Ibid.

103.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes” W. G. King, “The Difficulties Which Beset the Practical Application of Anti-Malarial Measures,” 52–54.

104.Ibid.; C. A. Gill, “A Summary of Anti-Malaria Measures in the Punjab,” 139.

105.Ibid., “The Indian Tea Industry: The Labour Question,” Cutting from the Statesman, January 1, 1909.

106.Home Department, Jails Branch, January 1910, 11–15 A. Dated 4 July, 1908, G. F. W. Braide, Inspector General of Prisons, Punjab to All Superintendents in Punjab and dated 31 July 1907 (NAI).

107.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “The Indian Tea Industry: The Labour Question,” Cutting from the Statesman, 1 January 1909 and “Extract from the Pioneer, dated 12 April 1909.” “Notes,” C. A. Gill, “A Summary of Anti-Malaria Measures in the Punjab,” 138.

108.Ibid.; “Notes,” S. J. James, “Experimental Demonstration Camps,” 155–7.

109.Ibid.

110.Ibid., 90.

111.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 232–5 A. Dated 8 November 1909, C. M. King to the Commissioner Lahore Division (NAI).

112.Home, Sanitary, May 1910, 189–231 A. “Notes,” S. P. James, “Experimental Demonstration Camps,” 90.

113.Ibid.; H. H. Risley, “Popular Cooperation in the Prevention of Malaria,” 96.

114.Home, Medical, April 1904, 46–7 A. “Notes,” Dated 30 December 1903, W. G. King, Sanitary Commissioner for Madras to the Secretary to the Government of Madras.

115.Mitchell, Rule of Experts, 42–3.

116.For repair and maintenance, see Latour, “Whose Cosmos, Which Cosmopolitics?” 459.

117.McClintock, Imperial Leather, 56.

118.Stoler and Cooper, Tensions of Empire, 31. On how regimes of governmentality and non-human agency enable one another, see Joyce, “What Is the Social in Social History?” 191–2.

119.Shukin, Animal Capital, 9–11.

120.Latour, Reassembling the Social, 72 and 52.

121.For critiques of Latour, see Schaffer, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Bruno Latour,” 175–2; and Chakrabarti, “Beasts of Burden,” 125–8.

122.Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? 13–14.

123.de Castro, “Exchanging Perspectives,” 471.

124.Haraway, When Species Meet, 2, 23–7.

125.On the theme of co-constitution: see Trentmann, “Materiality in the Future of History,” 297, 300; Kirsch and Mitchell, “The Nature of Things,” 688; and Pickering, “The Mangle of Practice,” 559, 567, 576.