Prockkdings Fi]?th AnnuaIv Mke^ting 67 



account of a scarcity of labor at the local mill, over a hundred 

 women are now employed at duties formerly performed by men, 

 including work on the saws, at the planers and at all kinds of 

 sawmill activities. The remarkable reduction in the frequency 

 of malaria at Crossett is indicated by the statement that from 

 2,500 calls for malaria in 191 5 the number was reduced to about 

 200 in 19 1 7, and at Hamburg, in the same county, the number 

 was reduced from 2,302 in 1916 to 250 in 1917. Most of the 

 cases now reported are contracted outside of the area under 

 control. The results admirably illustrated the efficiency of active 

 co-operation on the part of the International Health Board, the 

 United States Public Health Service, the local authorities and 

 the large employers of labor. So' satisfactory have been the 

 results that the work at Crossett and Hamburg has been taken 

 over entirely by the town authorities, and the control or the 

 demonstration work of the International Health Board will in 

 the future be concentrated largely upon Chicot County. 



A comparatively short distance south of Crossett, on a bend 

 of the Mississippi, opposite Vicksburg, another most important 

 and interesting experiment is being carried on primarily for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the economic loss resulting from malaria 

 on a large and typical plantation. This work is under the per- 

 sonal direction of Mr. D. L. VanDine, of the United States 

 Bureau of Entomology, who' has made some preliminary reports 

 indicative of ultimately far-reaching results. When the experi- 

 ment is completed, we shall know more about malaria and 

 mosquito control from every point of view than has heretofore 

 been possible. The investigations include mosquitO' density, 

 mosquito flight, correlation to wind direction, temperature, 

 humidity, mosquito density according to kind of houses, out- 

 houses, etc., varieties or species, etc. Every factor has been 

 taken into account, including larvae destruction by means of fish, 

 under the supervision of the United States Fish Commission. 

 It is certainly most gratifying to meet with such evidence of an 

 active scientific interest in the more involved aspects of the 

 malaria problem in this country. It is also most fortunate that 

 the statistical data are unusually complete, and that in course 



