ORGANIZATION FOR COMMUNITY WORK. 87 



drawings on the blackboard of mosquitoes in all stages of develop- 

 ment; lessons were given and compositions were written on the sub- 

 ject. Competitive examinations were held, and groups of boys and 

 girls were sent out with the teachers on searching expeditions to find 

 the breeding places. Rivalry sprang up between the 10,000 public 

 school children of the city in the matter of finding and report- 

 ing to the health office the greatest number of breeding places found 

 and breeding places destroyed. Record was kept on the blackboards 

 in the schools for information as to the progress of the competition 

 and great enthusiasm was stirred up. In addition to these measures, 

 a course of stereopticon lectures was arranged, grouping the pupils 

 in audiences of about 1,000 from the high school down, and, in Doctor 

 Lankford's words — 



It was an inspiring sight to watch these audiences of a thousand children, thoughtful, 

 still as death, and staring with wide-open eyes at the wonders revealed by a micro- 

 scope. It seemed to me that in bringing this great question of preventive medicine 

 before public school children we had hit upon a power for good that could scarcely be 

 overestimated. 



The result of this work, it is pleasing to say, was a decided diminu- 

 tion in the matter of mosquitoes in San Antonio. There was some 

 opposition among the people, but the movement on the whole was 

 very popular. One result of this work w r as that while there had pre- 

 viously been from 50 to 60 deaths a year from malarial trouble, 

 the mortality was reduced 75 per cent the first year after this work 

 was begun, and in the second year it was entirely eliminated from the 

 mortality records of San Antonio. 



In organizing community work against mosquitoes, the school 

 children hereafter must be counted upon as a most important factor. 

 Almost every child is a born naturalist, and interest in such things 

 comes to them more readily than anything else outside of the neces- 

 sities of life. They are quick-witted, wonderfully quick-sighted, and 

 as finders of breeding places they can not be approached except by 

 adults of the most especial training. One of the first steps that a 

 community should take is, therefore, the encouragement of the inter- 

 est of the children in the public schools. 



RECENT WORK IN GERMANY. 



The city of Leipzig quite recently has begun a crusade against 

 malaria under the direction of the city council. The following ac- 

 count of this w r ork was sent in by United States Consul S. P. Warner. 

 and is published in the Daily Consular and Trade Reports for April 

 20, 1909: 



So many cases of malaria have recently occurred in those son ions oi Leipzig which 

 are adjacent to any one of the four rivulets which flow through the city that the city 

 council has decided to adopt stringent measures to exterminate the mosquitoes 

 (Anopheles) that spread the disease. 



