360 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



Department of Agriculture, and early in March 1946 I flew across the 

 Caribbean again, this time to Surinam. 



It would be hard to imagine a more intriguing place in which to 

 carry on mosquito-control research. In Surinam several peoples from 

 the Eastern and Western Hemispheres live side by side without los- 

 ing or greatly modifying their identifying customs, speech, or religion, 

 and malaria, filariasis, dysentery, leprosy, and other communicable 

 diseases are common. 



Primitive peoples live there. I have been told on good authority 

 that far in the interior, near the Brazilian border, a tribe of red men 

 still lives in the stone age, without benefit of fire. The aboriginal In- 

 dians belong to the Carib, Arawak, and Warau linguistic stocks. 

 They are mostly of pure stock and live in the interior. Bush Negroes, 

 or Djoekas, live on the upper reaches of the rivers but not so far in- 

 land as the Indians. The Djoekas are of pure African origin and are 

 descendants of slaves brought to the colony 200 to 300 years ago. 

 Among these peoples the malaria rate is high (IT), but I saw no cases 

 of filariasis among them. Javanese and British Indians were imported 

 50 years ago as labor. For the most part they remain true to their cus- 

 toms, religion, and race. The typical native Surinamers are dark- 

 skimied but have considerable white European ancestry. Among these 

 people filariasis is common and malaria epidemics have been serious. 

 A few Chinese storekeepers live in the colony. 



Moengo, the mining village where the test was made, is a little para- 

 dise 120 miles up the Cottica River from Paramaribo. Its isolation by 

 miles of virgin jungle helped to make it suitable for our experiments. 

 The Aluminum Co. of America had built it according to modem hous- 

 ing standards, and, within certain limits, it was a clean, well-sanitated 

 group of homes. I found that mosquito genera and species were richly 

 represented and that species of Anopheles (6) , including among others 

 A. pessoai Galvao and Lane, A. aquasalis Curry, and A. oswaldoi 

 Peryassu were breeding largely in the rice paddies cultivated by the 

 Javanese. The common house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatiis Say, 

 was breeding by thousands in the water of moats surrounding the foun- 

 dations of the houses. These moats were supposed to be cleaned at 

 regular intervals, but apparently there had been "misses." 



The fly problem was rather severe. Within a few hours I easily 

 found the source, at a farm about a mile from the center of the village. 

 There were two cow barns, in which some 60 head of milk cows were 

 fed and were kept under lights at night as a protection against vam- 

 pire bats. In an effort to conserve manure the stables were cleaned 

 only once in several weeks. Each morning a fresh layer of green grass 

 was spread over the manure that had been deposited the night before. 

 The fermenting compost served as an excellent medium for breeding of 



