260 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 15 



He urged the co-operation of clubs, churches and schools in eliminating the mosquito 

 in that region. 



The first New England Health Institute was held at Hotel Bond, Hartford, Conn., 

 May 1-6. The health departments of all the New England States co-operated with 

 the U. S. Public Health vService and the medical schools of Harvard and Yale Uni- 

 versities. Between 500 and 600 were registered to take the courses and the New 

 England States were all represented. The faculty consisted of 77 lecturers, Dr. 

 John T. Black, Health Commissioner of Connecticut was Director, and Dr. W. E. 

 Britton lectured on Wednesday, May 3, on "The Role of Insects in the Transmission 

 of Human Diseases." 



At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, at 

 Washington on April 1, announcement was made that the Panama Government had 

 provided a site for the proposed Gorgas Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medi- 

 cine. The site is adjacent to the St. Thomas Hospital, which contains laboratories 

 and buildings and represents a cost of approximately $500,000.00 Dr. Richard 

 Strong, professor of tropical medicines at Harvard University, has been elected 

 director of the Institute. The board also announced the selection of the directors of 

 the Gorgas School of Sanitation to be established at Tuscaloosa, Ala. They are: 

 Dr. S. W. Welch, of Alabama; Dr. Charles F. Dalton, of Vermont; Dr. A. J. Chesley, 

 of Minnesota; Dr. E. G. Williams, of Virginia; Dr. Lloyd Noland, medical director 

 of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, and J. A. LaPrince representing the United 

 States Public Health Service. This board will meet at Tuscaloosa during the last 

 week in May and arrange the courses. At that time they will also probably elect a 

 faculty. 



The work of the Bureau of Entomology against malarial mosquitoes is now in 

 direct charge of Dr. W. V. King, who has been engaged in medical entomological 

 work for the Bureau for many years. He graduated from the Montana Agricultural 

 College, and soon was employed in investigating the Rocky Mountain spotted fever. 

 Afterward he was associated with the late A. H. Jennings in investigating the possible 

 insect transmission of pellagra, at Spartansburg, S. C, and in New York City, in 

 connection with the extensive investigation of the whole subject of pellagra by the 

 Thompson-McFadden commission. Since the conclusion of the pellagra work, 

 Dr. King has been stationed in Louisiana, at New Orleans and at Mound, where he 

 has studied the relations between the various species of mosquitoes and the different 

 forms of Plasmodium, and various features of malaria in co-operation with the 

 International Health Board. 



The dried fruit beetle. Carpophilus hemipterus (Linn.) has become a pest of 

 dried fruits in the warmer interior valleys of California. Although it breeds freely 

 in stored dried fruits, it is nowhere as serious as is the Indian meal moth, Plodia 

 inter punctella Hbn. 



The fig is a favorite food of the beetle and the ripening fruit often becomes in- 

 fested on the trees, particularly if there is any indication of pouring, and in the dry 

 yards and packing houses it may often become a serious problem. 



But one of the difficult problems in connection with the insect in question is its 

 relation to the smutting and souring of the ripening fruit in the orchards. The 

 beetle breeds freely in smutty figs and is attracted by soured as well as the sound 

 fruit. During the winter the adults may be found in great numbers in decaying 

 melons infested with the same smut that attacks the figs and also very abundantly 

 in decaying apples and other rotting organic matter. 



E. O. EssiG 



