66 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



and the doors of the rooms were doubled, in order that a possible 

 secondary parasite, if accidentally liberated, should have no chance 

 of escape. This made the rooms very warm and increased the 

 irritating effect of the larval hairs. Some of the assistants employed 

 could not stand the work and resigned. One of the best and most 

 experienced helpers was induced to continue the second year only 

 upon the promise that he would be relieved from this especial class of 

 work. Spectacles, gloves, masks, and even headpieces were invented 

 to avoid this difficulty, but these, while greatly increasing the suffer- 

 ing from the heat, were not entirely effective. The most serious 

 result of this trouble was the breaking down in health of Mr. E. S. G. 

 Titus of the bureau, in charge of the laboratory at Saugus, who was 

 obliged to resign in May, 1907, on his physician's advice, in order 

 to save his life. The difficulty in Mr. Titus's case was the intense 

 irritation to his lungs from the entrance of the barbed hairs. Mr. 

 Titus was soon after appointed entomologist of the Utah Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, and the change of work and climate 

 fortunately brought about a speedy recovery. His necessitated 

 departure in the midst of important work, however, threw us into 

 what appeared to be a serious dilemma, but fortunately it so hap- 

 pened that the services of the junior author, then occupying another 

 position in the Bureau of Entomology in Washington, could be 

 spared from the other work upon which he had been engaged, and, 

 since he had made especial studies of the parasitic Hymenoptera 

 and had done a large amount of rearing of parasites in the course of his 

 other work, he was sent on from Washington to replace Mr. Titus 

 in the parasite laboratory and has since had charge of the laboratory. 

 One of the early points to which the junior author devoted his 

 attention was the invention of new methods of handling the brown- 

 tail nests in order to avoid the serious effect upon the work of the 

 breaking out of the rash on himself and his assistants. He soon 

 devised an apparatus like the ordinary show cases that are seen in 

 shops, the glass on one side being replaced by cloth with armholes, 

 through which the gloved hands of the worker could be thrust and 

 the brown-tail nests handled in full sight through the top glass. 

 Most of the work with these nests, it has been found, can be done in 

 these cases with a minimum escape of the barbed hairs. There still 

 continued, however, considerable trouble from the rash, since much 

 rearing of brown-tail larvse must be carried on under conditions in 

 which such cases can not be used, and this difficulty still exists. 

 Miss Ruhl, of Zurich, in handling and repacking the large number of 

 nests sent to her by her European correspondents and forwarded by 

 her to Boston, has been a great sufferer from the rash. She has made 

 for herself a complete costume of an especially finely woven cloth, 

 and has made a large light helmet covered with cloth and provided 



