FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



Zone. A little later, as the Bishop of New Orleans told me, it 

 was a godsend to the people of that city when the epidemic of 

 1905 appeared. 



But I was by no means satisfied with this book. The medical 

 discoveries had inspired work relating to mosquitoes and their 

 control all over the world. Andrew Carnegie had just founded 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and I applied for a grant 

 to finance the preparation of an extensive monograph of the 

 mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies. 

 After some delay a grant was made, amounting to two thousand 

 five hundred dollars a year for three years. In the course of 

 those three years the field opened up enormously. I found that 

 there were many more species of mosquitoes than I had sup- 

 posed, and that there were infinite variations in habit among 

 the different genera. I had employed expert agents living in 

 different life zones, and had associated with me Dr. H. G. 

 Dyar and Mr. Frederick Knab. We found that we could not 

 possibly produce such a work as we wished to bring out at the 

 expiration of the allotted time. But the Institution insisted upon 

 published results before continuing its appropriations. We were 

 therefore left without financial support. But I had secured the 

 help of many voluntary observers, and I also got Congress to 

 appropriate ten thousand dollars each year "for the investigation 

 of insects affecting the health of mankind and animals." Dr. 

 Dyar was fortunately a man of some wealth, and he financed 

 several expeditions to regions that had previously been unknown 

 to us. And so the work went on. Finally, in 1912, we were 

 able to present the manuscript of two volumes to the Carnegie 

 Institution, and in 1917 two more. The work as a whole was 

 received with much interest by the medical investigators, sani- 

 tarians and biological workers of the world. 



Nineteen seventeen, however, was a long time ago. Knab, 



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