12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



made an examination of conditions at Camp Upton with special 

 reference to the complex mosquito problem of that section. 



Another very important phase deserves consideration at this 

 time, namely, the desirability of adopting every reasonable pre- 

 caution to prevent epidemics after the establishment of peace. 

 Various infections have been widely distributed as a result of the 

 wholesale movement and dissemination of troops and with entire 

 nations suffering from malnutrition, conditions will be almost ideal 

 for extensive epidemics when warm weather permits insects to become 

 active carriers of disease. The peril is greatest in portions of Europe 

 though sections to which troops return will by no means be free from 

 danger. Doctor Prinzing, in his monograph on " Epidemics 

 Resulting from Wars," states that, " Until comparatively recent 

 times the most serious human cost of war has not been losses in the 

 field, nor even the losses from disease in the armies, but the losses 

 from epidemics disseminated among the civil populations. It was 

 the war epidemics and their sequelae, rather than direct military 

 losses that accounted for the deep prostration of Germany after the 

 Thirty Years' War. Such epidemics were also the gravest conse- 

 quence of the Napoleonic Wars." Wasted resources and reduced 

 man power in certain European countries mean a relaxation of sani- 

 tary precautions and with the renewed activities of insects another 

 season, there will be almost unexampled opportunities for the spread 

 of disease unless precautions are adopted and rigidly enforced at 

 the very outset. 



Special entomological service. The plan was to promote the 

 production of larger and better crops and wa« a development from 

 and continuation of the insect pest survey and information service 

 conducted during the summer of 191 7. It is emergency war work. 

 A series of weekly reports or digests were issued throughout the 

 active part of the season, the first appearing May 23d and the last 

 August I St. These were distributed to farm bureau agents through- 

 out the State and to a number of specially interested persons, par- 

 ticularly those in position to influence the adoption of better measures 

 for the control of insect pests. This was supplemented by cor- 

 respondence directing the attention of observers to features of special 

 importance. The service was possible only through the cooperation 

 of the farm bureau agents and a number of observers in various parts 

 of the State, the latter mostly earlier correspondents of the office. 

 In addition to the weekly reports mentioned above, special circulars 

 were issued warning of probable injury by grass webworm, potato 



