EARLY CONTROL WORK 355 
Again, quite recently, Mr. John P. Fort, of Athens, Georgia, has written to 
one of us (Howard) that about the year 1854 his father, Dr. Thomlinson Fort, 
was physician to the penitentiary at Milledgeville, Ga., a place of about two 
thousand people; this had become infested with mosquitoes so as to cause much 
complaint. Dr. Fort had the matter investigated, and it was found that the 
mosquitoes originated in the tan-vats of a tan-yard in the penitentiary, and in a 
large cistern attached to the livery stable in the city. He ordered oil to be put 
upon the water in the tan-vats, and the mosquitoes were destroyed. 
In 1892, some exact experimentation was undertaken by Howard, in Green 
County, New York, which indicated the amount of kerosene necessary for a given 
water surface, and the duration of efficiency. These experiments also showed 
that adult mosquitoes are captured by the kerosene film; that is to say, adult 
females alighting on the surface of the water for the purpose of depositing eggs, 
or for drinking, are destroyed by the kerosene before the eggs are laid. The 
account of these experiments, published in “ Insect Life,” vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 12-14 
(September, 1892), attracted much attention among persons interested and re- 
ceived extended newspaper notices. From this it resulted that practical work on 
a larger or smaller seale was carried on with success, by H. E. Weed, at the 
Mississippi Agricultural College; by Dr. John B. Smith, on Long Island; by 
Prof. V. L. Kellogg on the campus of the Stanford University of California; 
by Rev. John D. Long, at Oak Island Beach, Long Island Sound; Mr. W. R. 
Hopson, near Stratford, Conn.; Mr. R. M. Reese, in Baltimore; Mr. W. C. Kerr, 
on Staten Island; M. J. Wightman, at an Atlantic coast resort, and by Dr. St. 
George Gray, in the British West Indies. The publication of the extensive 
mosquito article in the bulletin on house-hold insects (No. 4, n. s., Division of 
Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1896) by Howard and Marlatt, 
intensified this interest, and was productive of other successful work. 
With the discovery of the disease-bearing relation of mosquitoes, first with 
malaria and next the yellow fever, public interest in their destruction became in- 
tensified, and large-scale remedy work was done at many points. Bulletin No. 
25, n. s., Division of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture (1900), by 
Howard, devoted considerable space to the subject of remedies, and indicated 
in the main those remedies which are of use today and are to be recommended 
upon a sound basis of practical experimentation. It is probably unfortunate 
that the writer of this bulletin laid so much stress upon the use of petroleum as 
to obscure in a way the much more vital measures of thorough drainage and the 
complete abolition of breeding-places; but the idea that was prominent in his 
mind at the time the bulletin was written was “ Let us stop mosquito breeding 
at once in an economical way, and then let us take our time in more expensive, 
more elaborate, and more radical measures.” The same criticism can be made 
and the same partial, though by no means satisfactory, explanation urged in the 
case of Howard’s book “ Mosquitoes,” published in the spring of 1901; but both 
bulletin and book served a good purpose, and together undoubtedly helped to 
start, toa great measure, the anti-mosquito work which has since been carried on 
in the United States. 
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