MOSQUITO FAUNA OF PANAMA — BUSCK 53 



rooms used for sleeping, living, or eating quarters are screened ; 

 the Sanitary Department is responsible for all repairs of this screen- 

 ing and employs a large force of carpenters for this purpose. 



The physicians in each district make a weekly report on the num- 

 ber of cases of malaria in the different camps : these reports are tab- 

 ulated in the central office of the Sanitary Department and compared 

 with the previous records, and if an increase of even a fraction of one 

 per cent is shown for any locality, the local inspector is telephoned 

 and ordered to locate the point of infection arid eradicate the breed- 

 ing places. Long-continued statistics show how nicely this system 

 works. If any more serious increase occurs, a special mosquito in- 

 spector is sent out from the central office to locate the trouble and 

 report on the best measures to be taken. 



The difficulties of this work are numerous. The constant increase 

 of population requires new sites for camps to be made in the unim- 

 proved brush-covered country ; the ever-changing conditions due to 

 the canal work are a continued source of trouble ; the progress of each 

 steam shovel or of each of the extensive dumps produces new prob- 

 lems to be solved in the way of drainage; and, above all, the recur- 

 ring deluges of the rainy season cause rising creeks and rivers and 

 overflow of lowlands so irregular as to be impossible to foresee. 



The Sanitary Department has, aside from its office force, about 

 thirty sanitary inspectors and employs between 1,200 and 1,300 labor- 

 ers. The total cost of the Sanitary Inspector's Department is be- 

 tween three and four hundred thousand dollars. 



With all due credit to the truly excellent work and the undeniably 

 brilliant results achieved, the work is nevertheless done more or less 

 in the dark, at present, from lack of accurate knowledge of the 

 enemy. It could vmdoubtedly be made both more effective in some 

 ways and less expensive in others through a more intimate knowledge 

 of the mosquitoes concerned, toward which the present investigation 

 has made but a small beginning. 



At present the department deals with all mosquitoes as a nuisance 

 to be done away with, whether they are good, bad, or indifferent ; 

 but the work could be more profitably done with an accurate knowl- 

 edge of those species which are infectious, those which are merely 

 annoying, and those which are harmless or even beneficial. 



It is true that special attention is given the supposed malaria- 

 carrying species, but even here there is little definite knowledge, and 

 inferences may not prove reliable. 



Thus, it is generally supposed that all the species of Anopheles are 

 capable of carrying malaria ; but no accurate experiments have been 



