62 N. J. Mosquito ExTi:RMiNATioN Association 



effective mosquito-extermination measures in states and sections 

 of the country. The City of East Orange in which I live has 

 the honor of having among its residents a former president of this 

 association, Dr. Ralph Hunt. I occasionally see the Dbctor, but 

 I do not recall that we have ever had a really serious conversa- 

 tion on the subject of mosquito-eradication work. There is not 

 the clear realization there should be in our own section of the 

 excellent work that is being done by our own commission and 

 the valuable services which are being rendered by our own men. 

 Only to-day my attention for the first time was directed to the 

 five annual repoirtsi of the Atlantic County Extermination Com- 

 mission, which are indeed a most useful and instructive contribuh- 

 tion to the literature of malaria control. The work of our state 

 commission should be given more extended publicity, for what 

 is being done here is of interest and importance tO' the nation and 

 even; to the world at large. 



As early as 1788 a famous traveler of his day placed on record 

 the observation that "I am assured that the upper parts of New 

 Jersey are remarkably free from this fever (referring tO' ma- 

 laria or ague or intermittent fever) and mosquitoes." Yet cause 

 and effect in malaria transmission were not connected and the 

 true significance of the statement was not realized by the medical 

 profession or the general public. Most writers on tropical regions 

 and tropical feversi emphasize the almost pirecise and readily- 

 observed correlation of mosquito frequency and malaria occur- 

 ence ; but the truth and the immense importance of this was not 

 realized by even the most intelligent and scientific minds until 

 1898, when Sir Ronald Ross made his immortal discovery. Our 

 former ignorance merely p^roves how near one can be tO' the truth 

 of a great discovery and yet how completely one can miss: it. 



It may properly be recalled that as far back as 1848 Dr. J. C. 

 Nott, of Mobile, presented evidence to prove the relation of 

 mosquito occurrence to yellow fever, and Dr. Finley, in Cuba, 

 for some ten or fifteen years, repeatedly inquired whether some 

 relation of cause and effect between the Stegomyia mosquito and 

 yellow fever could not be proved to exist by the application of 

 thorough-going methods of scientific inquiry. But the scientific 

 minds of the period were so strongly imbued with a wrongful 



