1 -4 li THE BEOWN-TAIL MOTH. 
"the wind the hairs may be quite generally disseminated. 
When the hairs alight upon the human skin they cause an 
irritation, which upon rubbing may develop into inflam- 
mation. In New Hampshire this phase of the insect's 
presence has already become evident. At Portsmouth a 
clothes-reel was near a tree infested by the caterpillars. 
The family were greatly troubled through the summer by 
extraordinary irritations of the skin, for which they wore 
unable to account, but which were doubtless due to eater- 
pillar 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 con- 
siderably 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 many 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 
frightful disease. My hands, face and arms were broken 
out with this rash. Most of the caterpillars came from a 
neighbor'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 worn 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 same symptoms developed in nearly all cases. The 
trouble began with an intense irritation, then an eruption 
appeared, resembling eczema, with a sort of watery blister 
on the top. There was intense irritation all over the body, 
on the head, arms and limbs. I saw numbers and numbers 
