EXAMPLES OF MOSQUITO EXTERMINATIVE MEASURES. 105 



September 15, in speaking of this resolution and the proposed confer- 

 ence, anticipated that nothing will come out of the movement. It 

 says: 



To those, however, who have read many similar resolutions and have perhaps acted 

 on committees of the sort, the solemn rigmarole, with its characteristic touch on the 

 "prohibitive costs of attempts to exterminate the mosquito," implies no more than 

 an expedient to stave off the dreaded day when public opinion will force the govern- 

 ment of India to act instead of to talk on this really and literally vital question. 



The report of the conference as given in Nature, November 5, 1909, 

 indicates that many important addresses were made, including one 

 by Colonel Leslie, the sanitary commissioner of the government of 

 India, and others by such well-known workers as Major James and 

 Captain Christophers, of the Indian medical service. Colonel Leslie 

 advocated quinine prophylaxis. Major James introduced a discus- 

 sion upon the distribution of malaria in India and advocated a gen- 

 eral investigation in every province similar to that which Captain 

 Christophers made in the Punjab. Quite in the line of prophecies of 

 the editorial in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Major 

 White, of the Indian medical service, stated that he considered the 

 recommendations of past malaria conferences are costly, and almost 

 prohibitively so if undertaken annually, and contended that more 

 should be done with the propagation of fish which prey upon mosquito 

 larvae. At the termination of the conference various conclusions and 

 recommendations were drawn up under the following main headings : 



(1) Scientific investigation; (2) the agency by which investiga- 

 tion should be made; (3) practical measures, including (a) extirpa- 

 tion of mosquitoes, (b) quinine treatment and prophylaxis, (c) 

 education, and (d) finance. 



In the United States, it is sad to relate, almost nothing has been 

 done in the way of an active campaign against malaria alone, even 

 in restricted localities. It is true that extensive work has been done 

 against mosquitoes, but in the most of these cases the incentive does 

 not seem to have been to better the health of the people or to stamp 

 out malaria. We have shown that in the New Jersey work the item 

 of personal comfort is concerned and that of the enhanced value of 

 real estate and the enhanced taxable value of land to the community, 

 but the main fight there is conducted against mosquitoes that have no 

 relation to disease, although Doctor Smith has written much against 

 malarial mosquitoes and has conducted a strong educational cam- 

 paign. We have shown also that the fight against mosquitoes in the 

 marshlands back of Brooklyn was financed by a wealthy man whose 

 immediative motive was to keep his race horses in better condition 

 by preventing the annoyance to them of mosquitoes. In different 

 communities there have been intelligent and up-to-date citizens who 

 have made strong efforts to start malarial campaigns, but we have 



