FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 223 



sea-fisherman-in-ordinary, Montego Bay should 

 prove a very serious rival of Port Antonio with the 

 tourist element, but I hope that its mosquitoes may 

 be dealt with first, else these will prove a blot on 

 its escutcheon. 



These insects, together with the hypersemia 

 induced by much rum and little exercise, tinge the 

 complexion and enrich the vocabulary of those who 

 dwell in the tropics. From the earliest times the 

 mosquito has been known for one of the fiercest of 

 our winged enemies, those in the Dore* drawings 

 for the Inferno not excepted, and of late years it 

 has acquired new significance as an admitted 

 vehicle of disease germs. As a matter of fact, the 

 association between certain mosquitoes of the plains 

 and the disease known as malarial fever is not quite 

 the novelty that some people imagine, for there are 

 African tribes who have for generations recognised 

 the connection. For the practical purposes of 

 medical science, however, the two kinds of 

 mosquito known as Anopheles and Stegomyia were 

 made known to the world as the chosen airships of 

 the germs of malaria and yellow fever respectively 

 by the researches of Sir Patrick Manson, Professor 

 Grassi, Major Ronald Ross and other workers, and 

 in America much work has been done by Colonel 

 Gorgas, now in charge of the sanitation work at 

 Panama. The common Culex, one of the most 

 familiar mosquitoes of the tropical bedroom, 

 conveys, so far as we know at present, no disease, 

 being detestable only on account of its maddening 

 midnight music and no less irritating bite. 



When I arrived at Montego Bay and first 

 admired the snug little town from my lodgings on 



