HISTORY OF MOSQUITO CONTROL IN NEW JERSEY 269 



Extermination Society, under the leadership of William J. Matheson 

 as president, and Henry Clay Weeks as secretary. A convention was 

 held in December of that year and later a little folder entitled "Mos- 

 quito Brief of the American Mosquito Extermination Society" was pub- 

 lished. A summary of most of the main facts concerning the mosquito 

 problems as we know them today is set forth in this little folder and the 

 publicity which the movement received did much toward making the 

 layman understand the nature of the problem. After a comparatively 

 short career this society ceased to be an active factor in mosquito work. 



About the year 1904 Dr. Alvah H. Doty, then health officer of the 

 Port of New York, became vitally interested in the problems of mos- 

 quito control within the limits of the city and led a movement which re- 

 sulted in the establishment of a large amount of salt-marsh drainage 

 in Staten Island and about the City of New York itself. After Dr. Doty 

 ceased to be connected with this phase of the city work the work of 

 mosquito control lagged for a number of years. In the year 1915, 

 under the leadership of Dr. Haven Emerson, then health officer of the 

 City of New York, an appropriation of $150,000 was made for the 

 purpose of finishing the drainage of the salt marshes within the limits 

 of Greater New York. This work was carried on under the immediate 

 direction of Eugene Winship, sanitary engineer of the Department. 



It will be remembered that since 1906 the New Jersey Agricultural 

 Experiment Station has been steadily engaged in installing as large 

 an amount of salt-marsh drainage as the funds, which the Legislature, 

 saw fit to appropriate annually, would permit. It will also be remem- 

 bered that the various local campaigns have been steadily continued and 

 extended. All this work in the year 1912 crystallized in the form of a 

 bill which passed the Legislature and became a law under the title 

 of Chapter 104, Laws of 1912. This act is known as the County Mos- 

 quito Extermination Commission Law and provides for the appoint- 

 ment of a non-paid mosquito commission in every county in the state. 

 The duty of this commission is to formulate plans, secure funds, build, 

 and operate an organization for the suppression of the mosquito pest. 



Under the provisions of this law the appointing power was lodged in 

 the hands of the Supreme Court judges and the New Jersey Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station was designated as the centralizing and gen- 

 eral directing agency. 



Under the terms of this act, Chapter 104, Laws of 1912, Sussex, 

 Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Union, Middlesex, Monmouth, 

 Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May Counties have undertaken the active 

 work of mosquito control. 



