

SMUDGES AND FUMIGANTS. 33 



MIMMS CULICIDE. 



During the yellow-fever outbreak in New Orleans in the summer 

 of 1905 a Mr. Minims, a chemist of New Orleans, invented a mosquito 

 fumigant which was experimented with rather extensively and found 

 to give good results. It was made of equal parts, by weight, of 

 earbolie-acid crystals and gum camphor. The acid crystals were 

 melted over a gentle heat and poured slowly over the gum, resulting 

 in the absorption of the camphor and a final clear, somewhat volatile, 

 liquid with rather an agreeable odor. This liquid is permanent 

 and may be kept for some time in tight jars. In fumigation work 

 3 ounces of this mixture is volatilized over a lamp of some kind 

 for every 1,000 cubic feet of space. A special apparatus for the pur- 

 pose has been perfected by Dr. H. A. Veazie. of New Orleans, but 

 a simple apparatus may be made from a section of a stovepipe, cut 

 so as to have three legs and outlets for draft, an alcohol lamp 

 placed beneath and a flat-bottomed basin on top. The substance 

 is inflammable, but the vapor is not explosive. The vapor is not 

 dangerous to human life except when very dense, but it produces a 

 headache if too freely breathed. The writer, on the 8th of November 

 of the epidemic year (1905), took part in the fumigation of a room 

 containing about 1,200 feet of space in New Orleans in company 

 with Dr. J. H. White, in charge of the public health and marine- 

 hospital service operations in the city during the epidemic, Dr. 

 Rupert Blue, Doctor Richardson, Dr. H. A. Veazie, and several other 

 assistant surgeons in the service. A number of specimens of Cvlex 

 qnhiquefasciatus were flying about the room. There were two boxes 

 each about 1 foot long, with gauze slides containing one-half dozen or 

 more mosquitoes each and a large tube of 2 inches diameter and 

 possibly H feet in length, the mouth of which was covered with 

 mosquito bar and which lay on its side on the mantelpiece and 

 contained several specimens of the Culex. About 6 ounces of the 

 mixture were volatilized and the room was kept closed, without any 

 effort to artificially stop cracks, for exactly one hour. Upon re- 

 entering and airing the room, all mosquitoes were found to be dead 

 and a cockroach was also found dead on the floor, having come up 

 from between the cracks. The vapor is lighter than air. and the 

 mosquitoes in the room unnoticed on entrance Boon after fumiga- 

 tion sought the lower air strata of the room, gradually descending 

 toward the floor and toward the windows, which were on one side of 

 the room only. Sheets of manila paper had been spread before each 

 window, and on these sheets at the end of the hour were all of the 

 mosquitoes to be found in the room. 



An account of experiments with this mixture, containing details 

 of apparatus, etc., by Passed Assistant Surgeon Berry, of the United 

 37713— Bull, ss-10 3 



