160 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



The following method of ridding a cat of fleas as given 

 in a New York paper is interesting and may be of a good 

 deal of value : 



"An excellent way to get rid of fleas is used by a lady 

 in Chicago, who owns some of the best cats in America. 

 She has ready a square of cotton batting and a square of 

 cotton cloth. Placing the cat in the center of the batting, 

 which has been laid over the cloth, she rubs strong spirits 

 of camphor quickly into the fur and then gathers the corners 

 of the batting and cloth tight around the neck of the animal. 

 She has the fine comb ready and a dish of hot water, for 

 the pests, who detest the camphor, will run to the head 

 of the cat, and must be combed out and plunged into the 

 scalding water. Hundreds of them, however, will jump 

 from the cat and lodge in the cotton batting, where their 

 scaly feet stick in the cotton so that they cannot get away. 

 When the fleas cease to run out into the head she judges 

 that they have deserted the cat. The animal is then let 

 out of the batting bag, and the latter carefully carried 

 to the kitchen and deposited in the stove. The scent of 

 the camphor clings to the cat for some time and acts as 

 a preventive. A whole cattery may be cleaned out in 

 this way." 



L. O. Howard gives the substance of a letter from Miss 

 Adele M. Fielde on a method of getting rid of flees as 

 follows : She states that during a long residence in 

 Southern China, where fleas swarm, even in clean houses, 

 she made her own house immune through many years by 

 dissolving alum in the whitewash or calcimine that 

 covered the interior walls, putting sheets of thick paper 

 that had been dipped in a solution of alum under the mat- 

 ting and scattering pulverized alum in all crevices where 



