326 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



locality since then, and for the two years last past no further case has 

 developed, so far as I have been able to find. 



The agency of mosquitoes in the transmission of other febrile 

 diseases is so definitely established that their economic importance 

 as a menace to public health can not be doubted. Their agency in a 

 number of other diseases is suspected with good reason. In New 

 Jersey a recent amendment to the general health law classifies ' waters 

 in which mosquito larvae breed' among the nuisances over which local 

 boards of health have summary jurisdiction, and we have the fullest 

 powers under our law for dealing with the mosquito pest. Action 

 under those powers is not yet the rule, but each year sees a greater 

 advance in this direction. 



The great bulk of the mosquitoes occurring in this section of our 

 country are not agents for the transmission of any disease known to 

 us; but their attacks may be, and often are, so annoying as to form 

 a positive injury to the health of weak or sickly individuals by robbing 

 them of sleep and by the constant irritation of their bites. To some 

 persons the bite of a mosquito is really a serious matter and severe 

 swelling and inflammatory conditions are caused. To nobody is it a 

 pleasure to be bitten, and there is no point of view from which the 

 insect is not a detriment to health and the pursuit of happiness. 



Second: the influence on the agricultural development of an in- 

 fested area. This is a point that is rarely referred to, and it is not 

 realized that the character of a farming district may be substantially 

 modified by mosquitoes. Dairying, or supplying milk for the markets 

 of New York, Philadelphia and our own cities, is a very important 

 industry in New Jersey, and a large portion of the Philadelphia supply 

 comes from the southern part of that state. We have a stretch of land 

 in one of these southern counties eminently adapted for dairying, and 

 where herds have been in times past established again and again; but 

 they never lasted long, simply because the incessant attacks by swarms 

 of mosquitoes reduce the yield as well as the quality of milk to such 

 an extent as to make the animals unprofitable. It has been necessary 

 to change the type of agriculture in these areas to a less profitable one 

 simply because of the mosquito pest. 



Another section of our state, not far from the shore, is peculiarly 

 adapted to the growing of small fruits, particularly berries of various 

 kinds. These are very profitable and find a ready sale in the near-by 

 resorts. But just about the time when these berries ripen, the country 

 is apt to be flooded with swarms of mosquitoes from the salt marshes, 

 and when they do come it is impossible to get pickers. Gangs of Ital- 

 ians have been brought down from Philadelphia, they have started in 



1 Read at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine, Phila- 

 delphia, December 7, 1906, and published under its imprimatur. 



