PAPERS OX MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 281 



agricultural purposes has resulted in a great decrease in 

 the amount of malaria among the inhabitants because 

 malaria is spread only by the bite of a certain type of 

 mosquito, and this mosquito, like all types of mosquitoes, 

 can breed. only when stagnant water is available in which 

 to lay eggs and in which the wiggler stage of the mos- 

 quito's life can be passed. The economic saving from 

 decreased sickness and deaths from malaria, and also 

 other diseases which may have attacked individuals when 

 in a weakened condition from malaria, is not generally 

 taken into consideration in drainage projects, but it real- 

 ly should be included as a benefit as well as the increased 

 productiveness of the land. In some instances the eco- 

 nomic saving from decreased illness alone has been un- 

 doubtedly far in excess of the cost of the complete drain- 

 age work. 



In 1916 the chief sanitary engineer of the State Depart- 

 ment of Health called attention in an article in " Health 

 News" (the monthly publication of the department) to 

 the heavy economic losses caused by malaria in Illinois, 

 especially in the southern portion. No systematic ma- 

 laria-prevention work by mosquito eradication was 

 undertaken in Illinois, however, until 1922, but in the 

 meantime the matter was given consideration by the 

 Southern Illinois Medical Society, and as the result of 

 a resolution of that society, studies of mosquito-breeding 

 places and the types of mosquitoes prevalent in some 

 southern Illinois communities were made by entomolo- 

 gists of the State Natural History Survey. 



With the 1916 report of the State sanitary engineer, 

 the resolution of the Southern Illinois Medical Society, 

 and the studies of the State Natural History Survey en- 

 tomologist as a background, the question of systematic 

 malaria-mosquito eradication was presented on several 

 different occasions, as opportunity offered, by the State 

 Division of Sanitary Engineering to the city officials and 

 interested civic organizations and citizens at Carbondale. 

 It was considered that Carbondale presented, for various 

 reasons, the best place to demonstrate what could be 

 done in the way of mosquito eradication and that cities 

 would benefit bv such work. 



