Procki:dings of Fifth Annuai. Meeting, 35 



The Problem of Water Pollution in Relation to 

 Mosquito Control 



BY DAVID YOUNG, PATERSON, N. J. 



There is probably no public question of any magnitude which 

 receives so little attention from the general body of taxpayers as 

 that of river and stream pollution. Many of our beautiful rivers 

 and streams have been converted into what are little better than 

 open sewers. Owing to ignorance, self-interest and neglect, this 

 has continued to such an extent that the magnitude of the con- 

 ditions is being forced upon public attention, and compels serious 

 consideration of this sanitary problem. 



It has been customary to look upon water-courses as the nat- 

 ural channels into which should be thrown all the refuse and filth 

 which life and activity create. This practice has been continued 

 for so many years without any thought for the future sanitary 

 conditions, that it has actually become a menace to the health of 

 those residing near such water-courses. 



There has been, both in this country and abroad, many ex- 

 haustive investigations of pollution from sewage and industrial 

 wastes. Most of these investigations were made to ascertain 

 the prevalence of certain water-borne diseases, especially typhoid 

 fever, the disease most frequently contracted through polluted 

 water. Other investigations of pollution have also been made in 

 the interest of purification of potable water for domestic pur- 

 poses. 



Popular indifference to the effective disposal of sewage and 

 industrial wastes has existed so long, and so universally, that 

 only within comparatively recent years has it been realized that 

 many of the methods of disposal have proven dangerous to the 

 health of numerous communities, especially that method of dis- 

 posal by discharging sewage into small streams and pools, there- 

 by causing unsanitary and unhealthy conditions. Incidentally, 

 this condition furnishes intensive mosquito-breeding places of 

 a character that makes the elimination of them one of the hardest 

 problems we have to solve in mo'squito-control work. When we 

 have reached the point in our work where we are able to con- 



