THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



on an Irishman, and was of slight importance. It was simply the 

 removal of a gangrened toe. The patient was partially under the 

 influence of ether, Ford Thompson was operating, and almost 

 with a single flick of his wrist the work was done. So great was 

 the feeling of relief after the other operation that we involun- 

 tarily laughed with pleasure. The Irishman, only partially un- 

 conscious, had been crooning to himself, and, hearing the laugh, 

 said rather mumblingly, "Docther, docther, cut aff anither one. 

 It amuses the bhoys." 



But the work was hard. I contracted malaria, and I married, 

 and the combination of the two things was too much for the 

 medical studies, so they stopped long before I got my degree. 

 But I never regretted them, and my interest in medicine, begun 

 during my post-graduate studies at Cornell, has continued ever 

 since. 



In fact, not only have medical studies always interested me, 

 but medical men as well. During the years from 1886 to 1898, 

 however, I read little medicine (although I used to look over 

 the Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Associa- 

 tion at the Club), and it was not until the epoch-making dis- 

 coveries of the relation of insects to human disease were an- 

 nounced that I got back into the medical field. Then I pitched 

 in rather strenuously. But I shall tell of this somewhat at length 

 in another place. Medical investigators soon began to realize 

 that not only was it necessary to know mosquitoes well, but 

 that when a disease is shown to have an insect vector, the eco- 

 nomic entomologist, by his training, is the man above all others 

 to point out the best way of controlling this vector. 



And so, after some years in which I had published articles and 

 books, the bright idea occurred to some of the members of the 

 faculty of the Medical College of George Washington University 

 that I ought to have a medical degree. They pushed the matter 



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