180 MOSQUITOES 



ports and all of them of the most favorable eharaeter. One 



entirely reliable fj:entlemaii repDrtid to that within five 



minutes after he had aiiointeil a rain-l)arrel, seventy-five mos- 

 quitoes (presumably females) eaiiie to the barrel and seventy- 

 three of them perished, wliilc tlic otlicr three made haste to 

 escape. In one ease, a lady reported to me that she took nearly 

 a pint of the dead inseets from a hoj^shead tiie mornin;^' after 

 putting the oil in it. These and rc[)orts like tlicni <,n-eatly 

 encouraged my efforts, and soon the oil was in almost universal 

 use and the town smelled like a Standard Oil tank. I continued 

 from time to time to issue the leatlets, and followi'd them u[) with a 

 police ins[)eetion. The result has l)een a wonderful success. Tfie 

 plague, while by no means entirely abated, has been decreased to 

 a marked degree. In many parts of the town, the nets used so 

 constantly heretofore have lu'eii thrown away, and there are no 

 mosquitoes at all. In other i)arts, while their numbers are 

 lessened, they still continm* to be a nuisance. This difference is 

 doubtless due to the neglect of some persons in the particular 

 neighborhood to use the oil ; and also, no doidjt, to peculiar 

 facilities affonled for mo.sciuito breeding in some i)arts of the 

 town more than in others. I observed a decided increase in tlie 

 number in the latter part of August and in the month of Sep- 

 tember. 



Just now we are greatly increasing our efforts toward their 

 destruction, so as, if possible, to destroy the croj) that would 

 hibernate, and thus reduce tlic number of breeders to live over to 

 spring. 



There can be no doul)t about the success of the scheme. All 

 that is needetl is persistent, unremitting ai)pIication of the oil to 

 all pools, sinks, water-clo.sets, old cisterns, etc. , etc. , and another 

 season we ex pe<-t to have an ordinance witli a penalty attaciied 

 and to enff)rce the oil anointing even more systematically than 

 has been done this year. 



