494 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



Inteniational Health Board has stationed a representative (Dr. L. W. 

 Hackett) in Rome, and it is possible that, through this incentive, work 

 may be carried forward on a larger scale. 



The Italian Society for the Study of Malaria was founded in July, 

 1898, by Celli, G. Fortunati and L. Franchetti, and from that time on 

 its activities were extraordinary and the results of its work, as we 

 have already pointed out, were marvelous. The work, as was obviously 

 necessary, covered not only the medical aspects but also the socio- 

 logical conditions and studies of everything connected with mos- 

 quitoes, including particularly control measures. The earliest and 

 almost the most extensive experiments that have been made with 

 fumigants and larvicides (in other words, measures for destroying 

 both adults and the early stages) were made by Italian workers under 

 the auspices of this society. Celli and O. Casagrandi, as early as 1899, 

 published an important paper entitled (translated) " On the Destruc- 

 tion of Mosquitoes — A Contribution to the Study of Culicidal Sub- 

 stances," and in 1900 C. Fermi and S. Lumbao published an important 

 paper entitled (translated) " The Freeing of a City from Mosqui- 

 toes"; and the same authors published further important papers. 

 A competent entomologist, E. Ficalbi, who had written about mosqui- 

 toes before they were proved to be carriers of malaria, published in 

 1899 and 1901 important papers upon the Italian Culicids. 



Grassi was a man of much personal force and of high distinction 

 in his own country as well as abroad. He was not only an accom- 

 plished entomologist known for his investigations in many directions, 

 but also a broad zoologist, and was greatly interested in the medical 

 sciences. That he was made a Senator of the kingdom for life, shows 

 the esteem in which he was held in Italy. I have already referred to 

 his German education and his German wife." In 1910, when I first 

 called on him, we soon found that my Italian was not good enough for 

 close conversation. He could not speak English, and when I tried 

 him in French he asked me whether I understood German, and our 

 conversation was carried on in that language. In ai)pearance he was 

 typically German ; he had all of the German mannerisms. He would 

 not talk mosquitoes, although I had called especially for that purpose, 

 but he insisted on talking about the Phylloxeras of the oak, a subject 

 upon which he was at work at the time. So the interview was not at 

 all satisfactory. Later during that visit to Rome I met Celli and Tira- 

 boschi, both of whom spoke French fluently ; and on subsequent 

 visits to Italy before the war I consulted with Celli rather than with 

 Grassi. 



