June, '17] HERMS: CALIFORNIA MOSQUITO SURVEY 361 



Club invited Professor Woodworth to make a similar investigation of 

 the mosquito problem in the vicinity of Buiiingame. Professor H. J. 

 Quayle was detailed to organize and conduct the campaign. Here 

 again the main trouble was traceable to the neighboring salt marshes. 

 During the spring and summer of 1905 Quayle, assisted by students 

 from the University of California, waged a systematic anti-mosquito 

 campaign with marked success.^ Considerable permanent corrective 

 work was undertaken together with a systematic study of the mos- 

 quitoes of that vicinity. During the mosquito seasons of 1911 and 

 1912 a salt marsh mosquito campaign was conducted by the writer 

 with the help of students in the vicinity of Bay point in Contra Costa 

 County under the patronage of the Smith Lumber Company. 



The writer first became definitely identified with the mosquito abate- 

 ment problems of California in December, 1909, when he received a 

 letter from Penryn, Placer County, requesting that an investigation 

 be made of the malaria-mosquito situation in that vicinity. This 

 investigation resulted in organizing a systematic campaign against 

 mosquitoes during the spring and summer of 1910, terminating in a 

 marked reduction of malaria, particularly in school children. This 

 campaign deserves the distinction of being the first organized anti- 

 malaria crusade in the state. The campaign in Penryn had hardly 

 begun when citizens of Oroville, Butte County, requested that a simi- 

 lar campaign be organized there. These two campaigns are described 

 in detail in the writer's book on "Malaria, — Cause and Control. "^ 



The movement spread rapidly so that within the following two years 

 crusades against malaria-bearing mosquitoes had been organized in a 

 number of localities from Bakersfield in Kern County to Los Molinos 

 in Tehama County.^ One of the chief obstacles from the very begin- 

 ning has been the matter of securing adequate funds to carry out an 

 efficient crusade. The expenses had thus far been largely borne by a few 

 public-spirited citizens. Hence very early in the work a plan was 

 sought whereby funds might be secured on a more equitable basis, 

 with the result that finally, after several failures, an act of the legis- 

 lature was approved by the governor on May 29, 1915, known as the 

 "Mosquito Abatement District Act." 



This act provides for the formation, government, operation and 

 dissolution of districts, to facilitate the extermination of mosquitoes, 



iQuayle, H. J., 1906. Mosquito Control. University of California Agric. Exp. 

 Sta. BuUetin No. 178 (55 pp.). 



^Herms, W. B., 1913. Malaria, — Cause and Control. XI-l-163 pp. Macmillan 

 Company, New York. 



'Herms, W. B., 1915. Successful Methods of Attack on Malaria in California. 

 California State Journal of Medicine, vol. XIII, No. 5, pp. 185-189. 



