HISTORICAL SUMMARY: OF DISEASES. 9 
is probable that they were present from the first, but because of the 
fact that they are so dependent upon the abundance of their host and 
upon favorable weather conditions they are not conspicuous except at 
intervals when conditions are just right. 
In the years immediately following the discovery of the white 
fungus much attention was given to the investigation of chinch-bug 
diseases. 
Dr. Lugger, of Minnesota, was the first to attempt to disseminate 
the disease by the distribution of diseased bugs. In October, 1888, 
he sent diseased bugs to various localities, and the experiment was 
apparently successful, as the bugs in these localities were found to 
be dying with the disease a little later. But the disease spread so 
rapidly that Dr. Lugger was led to suspect very strongly that the 
spores of the disease were already in these localities and that he had 
only reintroduced them, the spread of the disease being due to the 
spores that were already there rather than to the spores which he 
introduced.*? * 
Dr. Snow’s observations and experiments in Kansas began in 1888 
and extended through the season of 1896. In 1888 the chinch bugs 
disappeared from some of the eastern counties of the State during the 
months of May and June, and Dr. Snow expressed the belief that 
they were carried off by an epidemic.*® Experimenting with the 
gray fungus, /’mpusa aphidis, he found that the disease could be 
communicated from diseased bugs to healthy ones by confining 
healthy bugs with the diseased ones. He also sent some diseased bugs 
1o farmers and to agricultural experiment stations in Nebraska, Iowa, 
Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. 
The reports received from those who received the diseased bugs were 
very encouraging. 
In 1890 chinch bugs in Kansas were very scarce, having been very 
generally exterminated in 1889. 
In 1891 the legislature established an experiment station at the 
University of Kansas “to propagate the contagion, or infection, that 
is supposed to be destructive to chinch bugs, and furnish the same to 
farmers free of charge, under the direction of the chancellor, F. H. 
Snow.” 
During this period between 40,000 and 50,000 packages of the 
fungus were sent out to farmers, and extensive experiments were 
carried on in the laboratory and some in the field; the life history of 
the white fungus was worked out, and the best means of propagating 
it in large quantities ascertained. Observers were sent out from the 
station at various times to make observations in the field. The 
reports of these observers in 1891 and 1892 were very favorable, but 
in succeeding years the results of the observations were less favorable 
and brought to light the probability that the fungus was widely 
distributed naturally, since it seemed to be the rule rather than the 
