328 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AINIERICA 



Hebrew scriptures upon the extraordinary persistence of that race through 

 centuries of European oppression — centuries full of plague years and of terrible 

 mortality from preventable disease ? And what more striking example can be 

 advanced of the effect of an enlightened and scientifically careful attention to 

 the most recent advances of preventive medicine upon the progress of nations 

 than the mortality statistics of the Japanese armies in the recent Eusso-Japanese 

 war as compared with the corresponding statistics for the British army during 

 the Boer war immediately preceding, or for the American Army during the 

 Spanish war at a somewhat earlier date ? 



" The consideration of these elements of national progress has been neglected 

 by historians, but they are nevertheless of deep-reaching importance and must 

 attract immediate attention in this age of advanced civilization. The world 

 has entered the historical age when national greatness and national decay will 

 be based on physical rather than moral conditions, and it is vitally incumbent 

 upon nations to use every possible effort and every possible means to check 

 physical deterioration." 



LOSSES FROM MOSQUITOES ASIDE FROM THE CARRYING 



OF DISEASE. 



Entirely aside from the loss occasioned by mosquitoes as carriers of specific 

 diseases, their abundance brings about a great monetary loss in other ways. 



REDUCED VALUE OF REAL ESTATE. 



Possibly the greatest of these losses is in the reduced value of real estate in 

 mosquito-infested regions since these insects render absolutely uninhabitable 

 large areas of land otherwise available for suburban houses, for summer resorts, 

 for manufacturing purposes, and for agriculture. The money loss becomes 

 most apparent in the vicinity of large centers of population. The mosquito- 

 breeding areas in the vicinity of New York City, for example, have prevented the 

 growth of paying industries of various kinds, and have hindered the proper de- 

 velopment of large tracts to an amount which it is difficult to estimate in dollars 

 and cents and which is almost inconceivable. The same may be said for other 

 large cities near the sea-coast, and even of those inland in low-lying regions. 



The development of the whole State of New Jersey has been held back by the 



mosquito plague. This point has been insisted upon by Dr. John B. Smith, in 



his excellent article entitled : " The general economic importance of mosquitoes," 



in the Popular Science Monthly for April, 1907, and he has put it so strongly, 



and he is so familiar with the New Jersey conditions, that we quote from his 



article as follows : 



" There is no exaggeration in the statement that the elimination of the mos- 

 quito would add ten millions to the taxable value of real estate in two years. [In 

 the vicinity of New York City ?] Let me illustrate : New York City is a highly 

 desirable place of residence in winter; but less so in summer, and there are 

 thousands of residents of New York City who are well able to afford a summer 

 home within an hour or two from town, and who are quite willing to pay for it. 

 New Jersey has many places ideal in situation and accessibility, and one such 

 place developed rapidly to a certain point and there it stood, halted by the mos- 

 quitoes that bred in the surrounding marsh lands. Country club, golf, tennis 

 and other attractions ceased to attract when attention was necessarily focused 



