THINGS TO BE DONE. 



7. Appointment of Superintendent. Having given a 

 few preliminary observations, we now proceed to consider 

 how the fight against mosquitoes can best be commenced 

 and carried on. The first thing to do is to appoint the 

 superintendent or commandant-general of the mosquito 

 brigade. Fortunately, this can always be accomplished 

 without any gazette extraordinary or orders in council. 

 Anyone can appoint himself, with as handsome a salary as 

 he can afford out of his own pocket. 



It is best, perhaps, that the superintendent should be 

 the health officer of the town in which operations are to 

 be carried on, and next best that he should be a medical 

 man ; but an energetic layman is quite capable of doing 

 the work. 



The qualities chiefly necessary are energy, persistence, 

 and an entire indifference to public or private opinion. 

 The need of the first two is obvious ; that of the last 

 requires some explanation. The self-appointed superin- 

 tendent will be at once astonished, and perhaps alarmed, at 

 finding that his philanthropical and wholly harmless efforts 

 are met at the outset by a storm of letters to the local press, 

 demonstrating the absurdity and even immorality of his 

 intentions ; proving that mosquitoes cannot be destroyed, 

 that they spring from grass and trees ; that they can be 

 destroyed, but that it is wicked to make the attempt 

 because they were created to punish man ; that they do 

 not carry malaria, because malaria is a gas which rushes 

 out of holes in the ground, and rises as a blue mist over the 

 country ; that they do not carry yellow fever, which is due 



