EXAMPLES OF MOSQUITO EXTERMTNATIVE MEASURES. 93 



family to collect rain water in barrels. As the majority of the 

 people in the large tenement houses were poor, and as each family 

 had a rain barrel, the health department covered these barrels at 

 public expense, leaving a small screen opening through which the 

 water could run and placing a spigot at the bottom through which 

 it could be drawn. Every house in Habana, on the average, has a 

 cesspool, the liquid contents generally seeping into the soil. The 

 inspector on each visit had from 4 to 6 ounces of petroleum poured 

 into the cesspool, and where this was not accessible it was poured 

 into all closets connected with the cesspool ; all receptacles containing 

 fresh water that did not comply with the law were emptied, and, 

 on a second offense, destroyed. If the owner was an old offender, 

 he was prosecuted under the law and fined. 



As a result of this work of the so-called ''Stegomyia brigade," 

 whereas in January, 1901, there were 26,000 fresh-water receptacles 

 containing mosquito larvse, in January, 1902, there were less than 

 400 such receptacles containing larvas; mosquitoes had rapidly 

 decreased, and were entirely absent in many parts of the city. The 

 result of this work, thoroughly done, was to wipe out yellow fever 

 in Habana, and there has not been a certain endemic case since. 



The ''Anopheles brigade" was organized for work along the small 

 streams, irrigated gardens, and similar places in the suburbs, and 

 numbered from 50 to 300 men. No extensive drainage, such as 

 would require engineering skill, was attempted, and the natural 

 streams and gutters were simply cleared of obstructions and grass, 

 while superficial ditches were made through the irrigated meadows. 

 Among the suburban truck gardens Anopheles bred everywhere in 

 the little puddles of water, cow tracks, horse tracks, and similar 

 depressions in grassy ground. Little or no oil was used by the 

 Anopheles brigade, since it was found in practice a simple matter 

 to drain these places. At the end of the year it was very difficult 

 to find water containing mosquito larvse anywhere in the suburbs, 

 and the effect upon the malarial statistics was striking. In 1900, 

 the year before the beginning of the mosquito work, there were 325 

 deaths from malaria; in 1901, the first year of mosquito work, 151 

 deaths; in 1902, the second year of mosquito work, 77 deaths. 

 Since 1902 there has been a gradual, though slower decrease, as 

 follows: 1903, 51; 1904, 44; 1905, 32; 1906,26; 1907, 23. 



WORK AT THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



The United States Government has very properly used the services 

 of Colonel Gorgas, who was in charge of the eminently successful 

 work at Habana, by appointing him chief sanitary officer of the 

 Canal Zone during the digging of the canal. In 1904 active work 

 was begun, and Colonel Gorgas was fortunate in having the services 



