64 N. J. MosQuiTO' Extermination Association 



quite generally neglected because in its more pernicious form it 

 has fortunately become a thing of the past. 



In Connecticut, where some eradication efforts have been 

 made, especially along the southern shore, the mortality rate 

 for 1 91 6 was still 14 per 1,000,000 against 3 for New Jersey. 

 Their higher rate is due to the fact that there has been no such 

 persistent effort at mosquito extermination in Connecticut as has 

 been made in this state. Our efforts have also been more rational 

 and well-considered, because the extermination methods fol- 

 lowed in New Jersey rest upon the only basis which can ever 

 justify considerable expenditures of time and money, and that is 

 the economic one. For this state and elsewhere the evidence is 

 absolutely convincing that mosquito extermination and malaria 

 eradication pays easily a thousand cents on a dollar, and in very 

 badly infected localities even, more. One has only to investigate 

 the marvelous development in the meadow region in the vicinity 

 of Newark, especially near Port Newark, to realize the truly tre- 

 mendous practical importance of the work which has been done 

 by the Essex County Mosquito Extermination Commission. 

 When you consider that the greatest problem back of the War 

 is the labor problem, and what it would mean if the men now 

 working in the meadows by the tens of thousands were incapaci- 

 tated for duty because of malaria, obvious or latent, you will 

 readily concede that merely as a war measure the work which 

 has been done has not only been of benefit to the county and to 

 the state, but also to the nation at large. 



In 1898 the fever-stricken troops returning from Cuba to Mon- 

 tauk Point reinfected a considerable area along the southern 

 shore of the State of Connecticut. That was the year in which 

 the theory of the mosquito transmission of the disease was first 

 announced, but the conclusions were not applied and with not far 

 from disastrous results. Among other localities, Greenwich, 

 Connecticut, has continued to the present time to suffer from 

 malaria, and a locality even as far inland as Middletown experi- 

 enced last year more than 200 cases, largely because of obvious 

 indifference and neglect on the part of the authorities, the medical 

 profession and the public. Last year there were 17 deaths from 



