8 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



Fort had the matter investigated, and it was found that the mos- 

 quitoes originated in the tan vats of a tanyard 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 the 

 writer in Green County, N. Y., which indicated the amount of kero- 

 sene necessary for a given water surface, and the duration of effi- 

 ciency. These experiments also showed that adult mosquitoes are 

 captured by a 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, a attracted 

 much attention by persons interested and received extended news- 

 paper notices, from which it resulted that practical work on a larger 

 or smaller scale 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 Uni- 

 versity of California; by Rev. John D. Long, at Oak Island Beach, 

 Long Island Sound; by Mr. W. R. Hopson, near Stratford; Conn.; 

 by Mr. R. M. Reese, in Baltimore; by Mr. W. C. Kerr, on Staten 

 Island; by Mr. 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 household insects b 

 by the writer and Mr. Maria tt intensified this interest, and was pro- 

 ductive of other successful work. 



With the discovery of the disease-bearing relation of mosquitoes, 

 first with malaria and next with yellow fever, public interest in their 

 destruction became intensified, and large-scale remedial work was 

 done at many points. Bulletin No. 25, c by the writer, devoted con- 

 siderable space to the subject of remedies, and indicated in the main 

 those remedies which are of use to-day and are to be recommended 

 upon a sound basis of practical experimentation. It is probably 

 unfortunate that the writer in 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 breed- 

 ing 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 



« Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 12-14, September, 1892. 



& Bui. 4, n. s., Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1896. 



cBul. 25, n. s., Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1900. 



