58 



oubject to flushing- with water during- the irrigation of ilic land iiear by. 

 A period of several weeks elapses before more water is turned. in, and 

 in the meantime the water becomes stagnant and the l)reeding- place of 

 millions of mosquitoes. Then, as the correspondent says, 'people go 

 around wondering- wliere all the mosquitoes come from, put up screens, 

 barn buhach, and make a great fuss.' Nothing- could l)e i^asier than to 

 pour an ounce of kerosene into each of these pits, and all danger from 

 mosquitoes will have passed. 



"In many houses in BaltinKjre, Md., the sewage drains tirst into 

 wells or sinks in the Ixick yard, and thence in some cases into sewers, 

 and in other cases is pumped out periodically. These wells invariably 

 have open privies l>uilt over them, and the mosquitoes, which breed in 

 the stagnant contents of the sinks, have free egress into the open air 

 back of the houses. Hence parts of Baltimore much farther removed 

 from either running or stagnant water than cei'tain parts of Washing- 

 ton, where no mosquitoes are found, are terribh' mosquito ridden, and 

 sleep without mosquito bars is, from May to December, almost impos- 

 sible. Specimens of Culex 2>un<jens captured November 5 in such a 

 priv}' as described have been brought to the writer from Baltimore by 

 one of his assistants, Mr. R. M. Reese. 



"Kerosene has been tried by Mr. Reese in one case in Baltimore, 

 and two treatments of a privy made about May 1 and June 1, respec- 

 tively, seemed to diminish the numbers of the pest in that particular 

 house; but without concerted action of all the householders in a given 

 block (all the houses, be it remembered, being exactly alike in the 

 method of sewage disposal) no great amount of good could be accom- 

 plished. With such concerted action, however, there seems to be no 

 reason why the mosquito plague could not be greatly diminished in 

 many, if not most, parts of Baltimore at a very small expense. Usually 

 one well serves two houses, the privies being built in pairs, so that one 

 treatment would suffice for two dwellings. 



On ponds of any size the (juickest and most perfect method of form- 

 ing a lilm of kerosene will l)e to spray the oil over the surface of the 

 water. 



'"'' Drainage. — The remedy which depends upon draining breeding 

 places needs no extended discussion. Naturally the draining otJ' of the 

 water of pools will prevent mosquitoes from breeding there, and the 

 possibility of such draining and the means by which it may be done will 

 vary with each individual case. The writer is informed that an elabo- 

 rate bit of work which has been done at Virginia Beach bears on this 

 method. Behind the hotels at this place, the hotels themselves front- 

 ing upon the beach, was a large fresh-water lake, which, with its 

 adjoining swamps, was a source of mosquito supply, and it was further 

 feared that it made the neighborhood malarious. Two canals were cut 

 from the lake to the o(;ean, and by means of machinery the water of the 



