36 THE BROWX-TAIL MOTH. 



moth anaxw in 1<S08, but it was not a circumstance to what it 

 ever had been the previous year. No one who had not seen it 

 would believe what a scourge it was in 1897. When my hus- 

 band came home and put on his clean flannels, he said they made 

 him almost crazy. The caterpillars probably got into them as 

 they hung on the line. The insects were all over the house, and 

 the trees were a terrible sight. 



Statements from PJnjHlcians. 



So severe was the 8uilerin<j; caused by these insects that 

 the services of physicians were in fre(|ueiit demand. State- 

 ments from doctors living in the infested district and treat- 

 ing a great many cases of caterpillar "poisoning" are of 

 particular interest, as giving an accurate summary of the 

 matter from the medical stand-point. Two well-known 

 physicians of large experience have kindly given us the 

 statements which appear below. 



George E. Osgood, M.D., 283 Highland Avenue, Som- 

 erville, writes : — 



The past summer (1898) I have had, in round numbers, fifty 

 cases of what is called dermatitis, or skin disease produced by the 

 brown-tail moth. Wherever the hair strikes the skin it causes either 

 small or large blotches. It even goes so far as to produce blebs, an 

 affection of the skin which varies from a little red spot up to a large 

 pustule, with pus or matter in it. The first attack lasts about a 

 week, but one can be poisoned just as many times as the hair 

 touches the skin. The after-effects seem to be trivial, unless a 

 person has tuberculosis or dropsy. In a dropsical patient it is 

 very bad, aggravating the trouble. On Summer Street I had three 

 cases of poisoning in one family, and on Spring Hill Terrace I had 

 cases in seven houses. I protected myself from the affection by 

 using disinfectants after being near the moth. 1 find that people 

 with light complexions are affected, apparently, more than those 

 of dark complexions. By the former it seems to be absorbed by 

 the system, and tiie lymphatics are swollen. I do not know of a 

 case where the lymphatics have been enlarged in a person with 

 dark complexion. In 1897 there seemed to be less trouble from 

 poisoning tlian in 1898. I had but about fifteen cases. AVe have 

 had (piitc a number of the moths about our place this year, although 

 we iiad the trees thoroughly cleaned last fall. We have found them 

 crawling up the trees, making their cocoons in them and under the 

 eaves of the house. 



