PREFACE 
T HE Handbook of Medical Entomology is the outgrowth of a 
course of lectures along the lines of insect transmission and 
dissemination of diseases of man given by the senior author 
in the Department of Entomology of Cornell University during the 
past six years. More specifically it is an illustrated revision and 
elaboration of his “Notes on the Relation of Insects to Disease” 
published January, 1912. 
Its object is to afford a general survey of the field, and primarily 
to put the student of medicine and entomology in touch with the 
discoveries and theories which underlie some of the most important 
modern work in preventive medicine. At the same time the older 
phases of the subject—the consideration of poisonous and parasitic 
forms—have not been ignored. 
Considering the rapid shifts in viewpoint, and the development 
of the subject within recent years, the authors do not indulge in any 
hopes that the present text will exactly meet the needs of every 
one specializing in the field,—still less do they regard it as complete 
or final. The fact that the enormous literature of isolated articles is 
to be found principally in foreign periodicals and is therefore difficult 
of access to many American workers, has led the authors to hope 
that a summary of the important advances, in the form of a reference 
book may not prove unwelcome to physicians, sanitarians and 
working entomologists, and to teachers as a text supplementing 
lecture work in the subject. 
Lengthy as is the bibliography, it covers but a very small fraction 
of the important contributions to the subject. It will serve only to 
put those interested in touch with original sources and to open up 
the field. Of the more general works, special acknowledgment 
should be made to those of Banks, Brumpt, Castellani and Chalmers, 
Comstock, Hewitt, Howard, Manson, Mense, Neveau-Lemaire, 
Nuttall, and Stiles. 
To the many who have aided the authors in the years past, by 
suggestions and by sending specimens and other materials, sincerest 
thanks is tendered. This is especially due to their colleagues in 
the Department of Entomology of Cornell University, and to Pro¬ 
fessor Charles W. Howard, Dr. John Uri Lloyd, Mr. A. H. Ritchie, 
Dr. I. M. Unger, and Dr. Luzerne Coville. 
