THE BROWX-TAIL MOTH 125 



ence has already become evident. At Portsmouth a clothes- 

 reel was near a tree infested by the caterpillars. The fam- 

 ily were greatly troubled through the summer by extraor- 

 dinary irritations of the skin, for which they were unable 

 to account, but which were doubtless due to caterpillar hairs 

 blown from the pear tree to the clothes upon the reel. In 

 the same city a gentleman, in removing a caterpillar which 

 had landed upon his neck, scattered some of the hairs, which 

 produced an eruption similar to but considerably worse 

 than that produced by poison ivy. 



In ]Massachusetts, where the infestation has been longer 

 known, this danger has become very generally recognized. 

 The following experiences recorded in the report on the 

 brown-tail moth, by Messrs. Fernald and Kirkland, are 

 simply examples of mau}^ others which have been reported 

 to the authorities: 



A lady in Somerville wrote: "We were shockingly poi- 

 soned by the caterpillars of the brown-tail moth. They 

 troubled us all summer. Every member of my family was 

 poisoned. At first we did not know what they were. My 

 little boy could not go near the insects without getting poi- 

 soned, — every time he went to pick cherries he would come 

 down from the tree badly poisoned. If my baby went near 

 where they were, his face would break out into a rash. I 

 was so dreadfully poisoned that I thought I had some fright- 

 ful disease. My hands, face and arms were broken out 

 with this rash. Most of the caterpillars came from a neigh- 

 bor's place. They came over the fence into the house and 

 even into the closets. They would get on the clothes hung 

 on the line, and when these were Avorn they poisoned us. ' ' 



A Somerville physician wrote : ' ' The first we saw of these 

 moths was in 1897. The first cases of poisoning I saw were 

 on Spring Hill Road and Park Street. I saw a number of 

 cases and they were all about the same, except that they 

 varied in point of severity. Some of the cases were very 

 obstinate, and did not respond well to treatment. The sam.e 

 symptoms developed in nearly all cases. The trouble began 



