DISCUSSION OF THE PROBLEM, 111 



the mosquito. Filaria sanguinis liominis is a minute 

 nematoid .embryo — which in certain warm countries is 

 found in the blood of man. 



Taking into consideration all the reports against the 

 mosquito, Dr. Lamborn is undoubtedly correct in his 

 timely suggestions that any eifort toward the extermina- 

 tion or reduction of the numbers of this pest should be 

 followed with all possible skill and patience. But, lastly, 

 consider how many houses in summer-time, at the hottest 

 and most trying season of the year, are rendered almost 

 useless; how much attractive land is made uninhabitable; 

 how many furious and debilitating nights and days are 

 passed in agony from the attacks of this insupportable 

 winged fiend, and the question of its suppression becomes 

 one of economic and social importance. To be sure, there 

 is the revers de medaille claimed for the mosquito. 



It has been claimed in his behalf that in its larval 

 stages it destroys the germs of miasma. The plea is futile 

 and misleading. The germs of miasma are very prob- 

 lematical and indefinite organisms, and the radical methods 

 of the extermination of miasma are well known and far 

 more efficient than any supposititious relief to be expected 

 from the larvse of mosquito. Drainage and clearance and 

 sunlio^ht are the scientific methods to overcome this diffi- 

 culty. Besides, J. AV. Slater (Ent., page 87) is of the 

 opinion that "aquatic dipterous larvse appear to render 

 stagnant waters more corrupt." While Dr. A. F. A. 

 King, in a paper read before the Philosophical Society of 

 Washington, D. C, endeavors to sustain the thesis that 

 malarial disease is produced through the instrumentality 

 of mosquitoes, which by their punctures inoculate the body 

 with the malarial poison. 



