THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



impossible, in many parts of the Northern States, to sit out of 

 doors at or after dusk from late May until September. In Ithaca, 

 where I spent my boyhood, the low-lying part of the city which 

 we called The Flat was very malarious. "Chills and fever" were 

 common, and extended up the West Hill for some little distance. 

 The East Hill, on the summit of which the University was built, 

 and which was gradually covered with private houses, was not 

 malarious. As I look back, I can remember that the presence or 

 absence of malaria in the different parts of the town could 

 plainly be seen by the appearance of the houses and dooryards — 

 well-painted and well-kept on the East Hill, a little more slovenly 

 in The Flat. 



From time to time we received letters in Washington asking 

 information about mosquitoes, and I published a number of notes 

 in Insect Life. In 1892 I built a little house in the Onteora Club, 

 in the Catskill Mountains, and in the summer found mosquitoes 

 very prevalent. On my land there was a surface pool of water 

 covering about sixteen square feet, and, remembering my boy- 

 hood experience in Ithaca, I poured kerosene on it, making a 

 complete surface film. This not only killed the mosquito larvje, 

 but also the female mosquitoes which alighted on the water to lay 

 their eggs. I read an article about this before the Buffalo Meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 and the newspapers took it up. The article itself was later 

 published in Insect Life. 



When I became Chief of the Service in 1894, it occurred to 

 me that it might be a good idea to write a long and compre- 

 hensive bulletin on the subject of household insects, and this I 

 did in collaboration with my assistants, C. L. Marlatt and F. H. 

 Chittenden, each of us signing the portion which he contributed. 

 Mosquitoes, the housefly, and certain other insects fell to my 

 lot, and before writing I studied their biology rather carefully. 



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