MOSQUITO EXTERMINATION SOCIETY 447 



selves. The United States government has done admirable work in Cuba, for 

 another people, and it has done excellent work in the Isthmian Canal Zone, but 

 in its own home territory it has done nothing. State governments have done 

 almost nothing, if we except the drainage work done in Xew Jersey. Malaria 

 campaigns have been local and on the whole very unsatisfactory. 



The same comparative indifference holds in other countries, and often even 

 where work is begun under good auspices and with excellent indications, it has 

 failed of securing the best results. Major C. E. P. Fowler, R. A. M, C, in his 

 report on malarial investigations in Mauritius, 1908, points out that on that 

 Island the great fault has been in non-attention to small details, as for instance 

 in dealing with neglected surface water such as is found in the small ditches 

 along roadsides, in field drainage channels and in holes in the ground, and fail- 

 ure in keeping up the larger work already carried out. He states that no 

 forethought seems ever to have been expended on keeping the work already car- 

 ried through in proper working order. Where drains or ditches had been laid 

 down only a few months previously he found them time after time choked with 

 vegetation and forming excellent breeding-places for Anopheles. The same 

 thing applied to rivers : the government had cleared them, but it seems to have 

 been nobody's business to keep them clear. According to this report, there seems 

 to be a general impression among all classes of people, not only in Mauritius, that 

 to carry on anti-malarial work means the outlay of vast sums. People prefer to 

 sit idle and complain that they have not the means to carry out the work. He 

 shows that a few gangs of men can do a great deal in the way of ridding a district 

 of breeding-grounds, and that their employment does not imply a heavy outlay. 



It is true that even where work is not directed specifically against malaria, but 

 against the mosquito nuisance, the breeding-places of Anopheles are for the most 

 part disposed of, and they are prevented from breeding, together with the other 

 species of mosquitoes, and for this reason a little space will be devoted to some 

 of the productive efforts which have been made in the United States aside from 

 those which have already been considered at some length. 



In the early days of anti-mosquito work in this country, 1901 and 1903, the 

 rather rare citizens who appreciated the situation and who did their best to stir 

 up their communities to organized effort should be mentioned, as far as this has 

 not been already done. Among them we have specifically in mind. Dr. Albert F. 

 Woldert, of Philadelphia, and later of Texas; Dr. Henry Skinner, of Phila- 

 delphia; Dr. H. A. Veazie and Dr. H. G. Beyer, and a little later Dr. Quitman 

 Kohnke, of New Orleans ; Major Barton, of Winchester, Va. ; Dr. W. S. Thayer, 

 of Baltimore ; Mr. Spencer Miller, of South Orange, N. J. ; Dr. W. F. Eobinson, 

 of Elizabeth, N". J. ; Dr. J. W. Dupree, of Baton Eouge. We have found it un- 

 necessary to mention any entomologists in this list, and of course since those 

 early days nearly every economic entomologist has become an apostle. After 

 1902 the ranks became greatly increased and at the present time conditions are 

 being bettered, although still there is no large well-organized campaign directed 

 solely against malaria. 



