CHAPTER X 



OUR INSECT FOES TRANSMITTING 

 AGENTS OF DISEASE 



DURING the last few years, as I have 

 already stated, the study of insect life 

 has assumed a new and far-reaching importance 

 as a factor in the health and prosperity of the 

 nation. Indeed, the general public have hardly 

 yet awakened to the fact that thousands of 

 human beings, horses, cattle, and sheep perish 

 annually from diseases transmitted by insects. 

 In no branch of natural science has the great 

 importance and value of biological and bionimic 

 investigation been more clearly and triumphantly 

 proved, than in the most modern study of insect 

 life in its connection with the transmission of 

 disease to man, and to the various animals 

 which he keeps in a state of semi- or complete 

 domestication. To Great Britain, with her vast 

 possessions beyond the seas, and particularly in 

 those territories situated in tropical and sub- 

 tropical countries, the study of this new aspect 

 of insect life is of the very greatest importance, 

 for on such investigation depends the possibility 

 of her successfully colonizing or reaping the full 

 commercial possibilities of many of her tropical 



270 



