100 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



WORK IN ISMAILIA. 



Another striking example of excellent work of this kind is found in 

 the report, published in 1906, on the suppression of malaria in 

 Ismailia, issued under the auspices of the Compagnie Universelle du 

 Canal Maritime de Suez. Ismailia is now a town of 8,000 inhabitants. 

 It was founded by De Lesseps in April, 1862, on the borders of Lake 

 Timsah, which the Suez Canal crosses at mid-distance between the 

 Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Malarial fever made its appearance 

 in very severe form in September, 1877, although the city had up to 

 that time been very healthy, and increased so that since 1886 almost 

 all of the inhabitants have suffered from the fever. In 1901 an 

 attempt to control the disease was made on the mosquito basis, and 

 this attempt rapidly and completely succeeded, and after two years of 

 work all traces of malaria disappeared from the city. The work was 

 directed not only against Anopheles mosquitoes, but against other 

 culicids, and comprised the drainage of a large swamp and the other 

 usual measures. The initial expense amounted to $9,650 and the 

 annual expenses since have amounted to about $3,531.90. 



The results may be summarized about as follows : Since the begin- 

 ning of 1903 the ordinary mosquitoes have disappeared from Ismailia. 

 Since the autumn of 1903 not a single larva of Anopheles has been 

 found in the protected zone, which extends to the west for a distance 

 of 3,281 feet from the first houses in the Arabian quarter and to the 

 east for a distance of 5,906 feet from the first houses in the European 

 quarter. After 1902 malarial fever obviously began to decrease, and 

 since 1903 not a single new case of malaria has been found in Ismailia. 



WORK IN VERACRUZ. 



The president of the superior board of health of the Republic of 

 Mexico, Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, was one of the first to grasp the im- 

 portance of the mosquito discoveries of the American army board 

 and one of the first to make an effort to put them into effect. As 

 elsewhere, he met with conservatism and a certain amount of dis- 

 belief, but it was not long before he succeeded in establishing an anti- 

 mosquito service for practically all of the towns in which the disease 

 appeared to be endemic, and devoted especial attention to the larger 

 seaports most frequently entered by foreign vessels. In 1893 the 

 disease spread in an epidemic form to several cities of the Gulf States 

 of Mexico and to some interior cities as well, such as in the States of 

 Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi. By the aid of strong executive 

 orders on the part of President Diaz, the superior board of health was 

 able to take action in all of the States except one, and was able to 

 arrest the epidemic. The plan of campaign was based upon the 

 mosquito doctrine, and the measures involved the isolation of patients, 

 the rigorous disinfection of dwellings by sulphur dioxid, the drainage 



