328 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 
Hebrew scriptures upon the extraordinary persistence of that race through 
centuries of European oppression—centuries full of plague years and of terrible 
mortality from preventable disease? And what more striking example can be 
advanced of the effect of an enlightened and scientifically careful attention to 
the most recent advances of preventive medicine upon the progress of nations 
than the mortality statistics of the Japanese armies in the recent Russo-Japanese 
war as compared with the corresponding statistics for the British army during 
the Boer war immediately preceding, or for the American Army during the 
Spanish war at a somewhat earlier date? 
“ The consideration of these elements of national progress has been neglected 
by historians, but they are nevertheless of deep-reaching importance and must 
attract immediate attention in this age of advanced civilization. The world 
has entered the historical age when national greatness and national decay will 
be based on physical rather than moral conditions, and it is vitally incumbent 
upon nations to use every possible effort and every possible means to check 
physical deterioration.” 
LOSSES FROM MOSQUITOES ASIDE FROM THE CARRYING 
OF DISEASE. 
Entirely aside from the loss occasioned by mosquitoes as carriers of specific 
diseases, their abundance brings about a great monetary loss in other ways. 
REDUCED VALUE OF REAL ESTATE. 
Possibly the greatest of these losses is in the reduced value of real estate in 
mosquito-infested regions since these insects render absolutely uninhabitable 
large areas of land otherwise available for suburban houses, for summer resorts, 
for manufacturing purposes, and for agriculture. The money loss becomes 
most apparent in the vicinity of large centers of population. The mosquito- 
breeding areas in the vicinity of New York City, for example, have prevented the 
growth of paying industries of various kinds, and have hindered the proper de- 
velopment of large tracts to an amount which it is difficult to estimate in dollars 
and cents and which is almost inconceivable. The same may be said for other 
large cities near the sea-coast, and even of those inland in low-lying regions. 
The development of the whole State of New Jersey has been held back by the 
mosquito plague. This point has been insisted upon by Dr. John B. Smith, in 
his excellent article entitled : ‘“‘ The general economic importance of mosquitoes,” 
in the Popular Science Monthly for April, 1907, and he has put it so strongly, 
and he is so familiar with the New Jersey conditions, that we quote from his 
article as follows: 
“There is no exaggeration in the statement that the elimination of the mos- 
quito would add ten millions to the taxable value of real estate in two years. [In 
the vicinity of New York City?] Let me illustrate: New York City is a highly 
desirable place of residence in winter; but less so in summer, and there are 
thousands of residents of New York City who are well able to afford a summer 
home within an hour or two from town, and who are quite willing to pay for it. 
New Jersey has many places ideal in situation and accessibility, and one such 
place developed rapidly to a certain point and there it stood, halted by the mos- 
quitoes that bred in the surrounding marsh lands. Country club, golf, tennis 
and other attractions ceased to attract when attention was necessarily focused 
