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Not Too Hot To Handle 65 



a little DDT bring about this desirable — from man's point of 

 view — result? Look at a fly or mosquito and what do you ^ 

 see? A number of legs, a proboscis, and various tentacles, I 

 or sense organs. All of these members are provided with ! 

 nerves. The feet are particularly important for they are the 

 organs of taste. Having "tongues" in their feet is certainly 

 very unfortunate for the inseas^ for tasting DDT is not to be 

 recommended. 



But to go on with the story: Our insect steps into some 

 DDT; and then what happens? The poison dissolves in 

 the nerve substance and gradually works its way up the leg 

 to the vital nerve centers, causing a progressive case of jit- 

 ters as it migrates. This process, however, takes time. Many 

 people, misunderstanding the action of DDT, have been dis- 

 appointed with the results that they obtained. They put 

 some solution in a spray gun, tiptoe carefully up to a fly, 

 and let him have it. And the fly, very perversely, flies away. 

 Ten minutes later the fly is still around, somewhat unsteady 

 perhaps, but still alive. So our big-game hunter, with a 

 shrug of disgust, throws his spray gun away and cries out in a 

 loud voice, "DDT is no good!" But the fly is doomed. And 

 if our hunter watches long enough, he will see a final kick, a 

 shudder, and then peace, as the fly stretches out on his back, 

 with his legs motionless in the air. 



A contact poison does not work instantaneously — youl 

 must give it time. We can show that easily. Let's take two '' 

 flies and put some DDT on one foot of each. A few min- 

 utes later let's cut off the treated leg of one of the flies, leav- 

 ing the other fly intact. The amputated leg will show pro- ] 

 nounced tremors and violent spasms for quite some time; bat ; 

 the fly who lost his leg will live. This shows conclusively 

 that it takes an appreciable time for the poison to travel up 



