52 Mosquitoes 



traveller. There is no doubt that the trains are an 

 important means of carrying the coast mosquitoes 

 inland. I have seen freight cars on the sidings at 

 Roseville, N. J., wherein large numbers of marsh 

 mosquitoes had taken refuge, and doubtless many 

 of these were carried on up the line. Thus the 

 pests have in many cases been established at points 

 where, before the railroads came through, they were 

 unknown. 



A mosquito in Winchester, Va., was as rare as a 

 horse in Venice, so says the Mayor of the city, until 

 a night train of parlour cars was started on the Balti- 

 more and Ohio Railroad to run from Camden Station, 

 Baltimore, during the summer. A few years later 

 the insects had become a positive annoyance. 



As many as two hundred Anopheles were counted 

 in a coach by Grassi during a two-hour drive through 

 the plain of Capaccio, Italy, so one may imagine 

 what a freight car may carry after a night on a 

 meadow siding. The distance to which the pests 

 may be transported by artificial means is probably 

 unlimited. They are spread from port to port by 

 ships, especially in the tropics. It is asserted that 

 sailing vessels from our own country, having bred the 

 insects in their water barrels, are responsible for their 

 present abundance in Havana, where formerly they 

 were unknown. Taken by the railroads throughout 

 the country and flying from the cars at the different 

 stops, they breed in the railroad ditches or any con- 

 venient pool, thoroughly establishing themselves in 

 a short time. The ditches along railroad beds are 

 prolific and needless sources of the nuisance, With 



