18 THE FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGIST 
Fleeing the mosquito, man came to colder places where vege- 
tation grew only at certain seasons of the year—there the cold 
of winter made him live in caves, wear clothing, and keep near 
the constantly burning fire. Unable to hunt profitably at this 
time of the year, he gradually learned to capture and to keep 
alive in his cave certain herbivorous animals for his winter’s 
meat. They required food. Their descendants, born in cap- 
tivity, were the forbears of our domestic animals. Nuts and 
grasses were propagated for them as close by as possible. In 
times of meat scarcity these were eaten by man. Thus the begin- 
nings of agriculture. Controlled fire has given us machines, 
cement, electricity. But all this depended on the brain-develop- 
ing process we call reason. Community life beginning around 
the home fire probably did more to foster this than any other 
one thing. Thus, according to this interesting speculation of 
Dr. Gorgas, the mosquito was responsible for our civilization. 
Whether or not it was thus responsible, the mosquito’s occu- 
pancy up to this time of the choicest land on earth may well 
be made a direct cause of an indefinite retarding of our prog- 
ress. Man’s crying need is for rich land on which cheap food 
can be produced with an ample return to the farmer. The 
“malaria land” of the South capable of producing crop after 
crop practically the whole vear round is such land. Quantity 
production and continuous profitable productive occupation is 
of as great value to the farmer as it is to the manufacturer. 
The shaded map of U. 8S. Public Health Reports (“Distribu- 
tion of Malaria in the United States as indicated by Mortality 
Reports’, by Assistant Surgeon Kenneth F. Maxey, U.S.P.H.S.), 
shows the tremendous amount of such land in this country, 
all of which can be redeemed. 
Dr. Henry R. Carter, Assistant Surgeon General of the U. S. 
Public Health Service, the man who with Gorgas made possible 
the building of the Panama Canal, says “The loss of efficiency 
caused by malaria in the country of the malarious section of 
the South is beyond comparison greater than that caused by any 
other disease, or even by any two or three diseases combined, 
including typhoid fever and tuberculosis.” 
The land is here, the removal of malaria will make the native 
labor efficient and attract ample outside capital and labor to 
make this part of our country capable of producing enough 
food stuffs to make war for conquest on the part of this country 
totally unnecessary. Properly divided, there is enough similar 
