354 MOSQUITOES OF NOETH AMERICA 



liable to prosecution on what might be in some cases grounds that would be 

 trivial compared with the magnitude of the interests involved. 



The third case occurred about 1903, in Texas. The plaintiff alleged that the 

 defendant, a certain railway, had constructed a large water tank or pool near 

 his premises, that the water in the tank became stagnant (caused by decaying 

 vegetation, etc.), producing poisonous vapors, gases, and disease-bearing germs, 

 which, escaping from said pool, reached and penneated the premises of the 

 plaintiff, causing foul odors and sickness. The evidence showed that since the 

 construction of the pool, mosquitoes were more numerous in plaintiff's home 

 than before. The railway surgeon testified that malaria was caused solely by mos- 

 quitoes, and that large bodies of water, such as the defendant's pool, would not 

 produce as many mosquitoes as smaller and shallower bodies of water, and, 

 therefore, that the malaria of which the plaintiff complained was probably 

 derived from other sources than the railway water tank. Thus, the mosquito 

 aspect was only the collateral issue in the case, introduced curiously enough by 

 the defendant and not by the plaintiff. The trial was by jury and a verdict was 

 rendered for the plaintiff, largely owing to the submittal to the jury by the 

 judge of the issue of malarial poison caused by noxious and poisonous vapors. 



PROTECTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



For many centuries humanity has endured the annoyance of mosquitoes with- 

 out making an intelligent effort to prevent the annoyance, except for smudges, 

 preparations applied to the skin, and removal from localities of abundance. And 

 it is only within comparatively recent years that wide-spread community work 

 against mosquitoes has been undertaken, this having resulted almost directly 

 from the discoveries concerning the carriage of disease by these insects. 



As obvious a procedure as it might seem to be, the abolition of mosquito 

 breeding-places is a comparatively new idea. The treatment of breeding-places 

 with oil to destroy the larval forms is, however, by no means recent. As early 

 as 1812, the writer of a work published in London entitled " Omniana or Horae 

 Otiosiores " suggested that by pouring oil upon water the number of mosquitoes 

 may be diminished. It is stated that in the middle of the 19th century kerosene 

 was used in France in this way, while in the French quarter in New Orleans oil 

 was placed in water tanks before the Civil War, the idea having possibly come 

 from France to New Orleans or vice versa. 



Another early recommendation of the use of oil was given by an anonymous 

 writer in the Magazin Pittoresque, vol. 15, pp. 178-182 (1846) in an article 

 on the " Mosquito and Its Metamorphoses." The phraseology translated into 

 English is as follows : " When one has recognized that the ponds or ditches 

 existing close to houses are swarming with the larvae of mosquitoes, one can 

 immediately destroy this dangerous race by spreading on the surface a little oil, 

 which extends in a very thin film and prevents the little insects from coming 

 up to breathe. This proceeding is especially easy to put into practice upon the 

 irrigating tanks in gardens, since it is in such places that the greatest number 

 of mosquitoes develop." 



