66 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS.: 
and the doors of the rooms were doubled, in order that a possible 
secondary parasite, if accidentally liberated, should have no chance 
of escape. This made the rooms very warm and increased the 
irritating effect of the larval hairs. Some of the assistants employed 
could not stand the work and resigned. One of the best and most 
experienced helpers was induced to continue the second year only 
upon the promise that he would be relieved from this especial class of 
work. Spectacles, gloves, masks, and even headpieces were invented 
to avoid this difficulty, but these, while greatly increasing the suffer- 
ing from the heat, were not entirely effective. The most serious 
result of this trouble was the breaking down in health of Mr. E. S. G, 
Titus of the bureau, in charge of the laboratory at Saugus, who was 
obliged to resign in May, 1907, on his physician’s advice, in order 
to save his life. The difficulty in Mr. Titus’s case was the intense 
irritation to his lungs from the entrance of the barbed hairs. Mr. 
Titus was soon after appomted entomologist of the Utah Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, and the change of work and climate 
fortunately brought about a speedy recovery. His necessitated 
departure in the midst of important work, however, threw us into 
what appeared to be a serious dilemma, but fortunately it so hap- 
pened that the services of the junior author, then occupying another 
position in the Bureau of Entomology in Washington, could be 
spared from the other work upon which he had been engaged, and, 
since he had made especial studies of the parasitic Hymenoptera 
and had done a large amount of rearing of parasites in the course of his 
other work, he was sent on from Washington to replace Mr. Titus 
in the parasite laboratory and has since had charge of the laboratory. 
One of the early points to which the junior author devoted his 
attention was the invention of new methods of handling the brown- 
tail nests in order to avoid the serious effect upon the work of the 
breaking out of the rash on himself and his assistants. He soon 
devised an apparatus like the ordinary show cases that are seen in 
shops, the glass on one side being replaced by cloth with armholes, 
through which the gloved hands of the worker could be thrust and 
the brown-tail nests handled in full sight through the top glass. 
Most of the work with these nests, it has been found, can be done in 
these cases with a minimum escape of the barbed hairs. There still 
continued, however, considerable trouble from the rash, simce much 
rearing of brown-tail larvee must be carried on under conditions in 
which such cases can not be used, and this difficulty still exists. 
Miss Ruhl, of Zurich, in handling and repacking the large number of 
nests sent to her by her European correspondents and forwarded by 
her to Boston, has been a great sufferer from the rash. She has made 
for herself a complete costume of an especially finely woven cloth, 
and has made a large light helmet covered with cloth and provided 
