364 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



Nearly all of these workers, however, have spent only a portion 

 of their time upon such studies and have each contributed only a 

 few papers. Systematic, consecutive, well-planned work by many 

 men, perhaps in cooperation, must be brought about. 



From the fact that certain disease organisms inhabit both insects 

 and w'arm-blooded animals and that with some of them this dual 

 host relation is a necessity in their lives, we are led to the subject 

 of medical entomology. 



It seems to me that no wise man can for an instant believe that 

 medical entomology has passed its infancy. To all intents and 

 purposes this branch of knowledge was first opened up less than 

 30 years ago. Its increase has been dramatic. Three years ago, 

 at the invitation of the president of the American Public Health 

 Association, I wrote the " Sketch History of Medical Entomology." 

 It was a subject with which I had been connected since its begin- 

 ning. It was a subject of vital interest. Discovery had followed 

 discovery with such rapidity and the results which followed these 

 discoveries were of such enormous importance to humanity that the 

 story fairly w^rote itself. The subject has developed so rapidly and 

 has spread out in so many directions that it invites and in fact 

 demands the keen attention of many workers. 



It is true that most of the main discoveries have been made by 

 medical men, but all future work demands the intimate cooperation 

 of pathologists and entomologists. The control of an insect-borne 

 disease, whether of man or domestic animals or cultivated plants, 

 means primarily the control of the vector; and who so competent 

 to investigate the possibilities in that direction as the man trained 

 in economic entomology ? 



Not so many months ago, traveling for a day or two in the com- 

 pany of the principal officer of one of the great medical research 

 institutions, I suggested to him that a well-equipped service should 

 be started, preferably at some great scientific center, wdiere the 

 intimate biology of all insects known to be carriers of disease should 

 be investigated by competent men, untrammeled in their work and 

 assisted to the limit of their necessities in a financial way; that these 

 men should include in their investigations not only all Imown vectors 

 but all of the close relatives of such species. I am sure that my 

 suggestion was sound; that the establishment of such a laboratory 

 or series of laboratories is a great desideratum; that the results to 

 be gained by such work could not fail to be of very great benefit; 

 and I, therefore, advanced the project with some assurance. To my 

 disappointment, however, it was received with an interest which was 

 obviously only a matter of courtesy, and I dropped the subject in 

 discouragement. But why should not such a plan be pushed? Let 



