136 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



tion. Inspection of native and American towns for Stegomyia and 

 Culex breeding containers is made, either by himself or assistants or by 

 negro foremen closely checked by the inspector. The results of these 

 inspections, the number of containers with larvae found and of houses 

 inspected are reported weekly to headquarters, as are the results of the 

 mosquito catch in barracks. In this report are given the number of 

 each house inspected, the times inspected, and number of each class of 

 mosquitoes captured, also the total number of mosquitoes taken in the 

 station. These and the reports of the division inspectors, who visit the 

 stations at frequent intervals, the number of malaria cases which 

 have occurred during the week, together with all the factors involved 

 in the situation, are carefully considered. The result of this study is 

 taken to indicate the condition of the station and upon it is based the 

 program for future work. 



Previous to the advent of the Americans in 1904 the Isthmus of 

 Panama had not enjoyed the benefits of any efforts at control of the 

 universal pest of mosquitoes and the accompanying scourges of 

 malaria and yellow fever. Indeed, so new were the discoveries which 

 established the connection between these diseases and their insect 

 transmitters, that the days of active prosecution of canal work by the 

 French had passed before the results of the discoveries became prac- 

 tically available to the world, for the control of such conditions as then 

 prevailed in Panama. With the entrance of the U. S. Government 

 upon the field, the work of controlling and eradicating the twin pests 

 which had so long dominated this part of tropical America was taken 

 vigorously in hand. 



At first directed entirely against yellow fever, then frequently 

 occurring in the ports of Colon and Panama, it was, when that disease 

 had been stamped out, extended to the control of malaria and eradica- 

 tion of Anopheles mosquitoes in the inhabited portions of the Canal 

 Zone. The result is that today yellow fever may be regarded as a 

 remote possibility and malarial incidence has long been reduced to 

 such a point that the health of the Canal Zone bears favorable com- 

 parison with that of most portions of the continental United States. 

 I should add that in the maintenance of such desirable conditions, as 

 far as yellow fever is concerned, an efficient quarantine has effectively 

 co-operated with the Department of Sanitation by successfully exclud- 

 ing all cases of the disease. 



The character of the population of a country in which the control of 

 mosquitoes and the reduction of malarial disease is attempted, plays 

 an important part in the success or failure of the undertaking. An 

 intelligent and tractable population will greatly aid in the thoroughness 

 with which mosquito control work may be accomplished, while opposite 



