352 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



Trying to dry our feet and socks before going to bed was about the 

 most uncomfortable experience of all. We had the minimum of change 

 and had little heat to dry our clothing, and mosquitoes were constantly 

 finding vulnerable parts of our anatomy. We took turns using a 

 specially designed sleeping bag, without benefit of a tent. Getting 

 partly undressed and diving into a sleeping bag fast enough to escape 

 being bitten was a real feat. There remained, then, the attempt to 

 zip up the sleeping bag and stuff mosquito netting into the opening 

 through which we breathed. Our arms were pinned to our sides, 

 there were persistent lumps in our improvised mattresses of reindeer 

 moss, and daylight lasted until 10 or 11 p. m. The sun arose about 2 

 in the morning, and if the night was not exceptionally cold our rest 

 was punctuated by the monotonous hum of the mosquito hordes. 



One evening when most pf the boys had retired to their small pup 

 tents I made a fairly dependable count of 1,900 mosquitoes quietly 

 roosting on one of the tents. These tents had a canvas floor, a 

 screened ventilator in each end, and two doors — one of mosquito net- 

 ting, the other of canvas. Two men were assigned to each tent. As 

 the men crawled into their tents, many mosquitoes went right in with 

 them. I had brought a supply of aerosol bombs, and after each pair 

 of men crawled into their bedding I released the pyrethrum aerosol 

 for a few seconds in through their netting door. This treatment en- 

 tirely freed the inside of the tent of living mosquitoes within a few 

 minutes. In the ventilators of one such tent I counted one morning 

 128 dead mosquitoes. No doubt dozens of others had been killed by 

 the aerosol before they were able to get to the ventilator. Had it not 

 been for the aerosol bombs, each of our nights spent in the tents would 

 have been one of torment. 



The results obtained with our insect repellents (10) compensated 

 Moore and myself for the tortures the mosquitoes inflicted upon us, but 

 the enlisted men did not share our enthusiasm. All but one of them, 

 however, stayed with us until the tests were completed. 



We obtained data on the relative merits of several repellents used 

 alone and in different combinations (20). As in the laboratory at 

 Orlando, certain repellents proved effective on some individuals but 

 not on others, and a mixture of the three most effective repellent chem- 

 icals proved more effective on all individuals than any repellent used 

 alone. We demonstrated that these new materials could be used for 

 the protection of our armed forces under Arctic conditions. At the 

 end of our tests a secret ballot was taken in which each man was asked 

 to indicate whether he preferred to be protected with heavy clothing 

 or with repellents. The vote was unanimously in favor of the 

 repellents. 



In all our tests, the number of mosquitoes alighting on a certain 

 portion of the unprotected leg or arm was at least 45 per minute. 



