Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting 



7 



Mosquito Control About Cantonments and Shipyards 



BY J. A. LE PRINCE, SENIOR SANITARY ENGINEER, UNITED 

 STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : When rxiilitan^ r^v^ton- 

 ments were being established during 1917 and 1918 it was realized 

 that it would be insufficient to protect the health of soldiers, sailors 

 and skilled laborers only within the boundary lines of cantonment 

 or industrial plants, as previous history of sanitation indicates 

 that disease is contracted in municipal and rural areas lacking 

 proper sanitation more frequently than in naval and military res- 

 ervations having proper facilities for medical and sanitary con- 

 trol. The records of Medical and Sanitary Officers show this to be 

 particularly true of malaria. 



As the records of our camps during the Civil and Spanish- 

 Amjerican wars indicated that large numbers of enlisted men were 

 rendered unfit for service after contracting malaria, it was deemed 

 essential to institute malaria campaigns at locations near military 

 cantonments, naval reservations, aviation camps, munition plants, 

 ship construction yards and other important war industries. It was 

 realized that the introduction of large forces of labor from malaria 

 infested regions would produce new conditions at and near can- 

 tonment towns that would make extra precautionary measures 

 essential ; also that special attention must be devoted to all places 

 where war industry employees, as well as Army and Navy men, 

 congregate or rerrbain after sundown in potential malaria districts. 

 There were strong indications of a future shortage of both skilled 

 and unskilled labor, and it was evident that unless precautions were 

 taken to protect these men at their homes, the labor situation would 

 become more serious. There was little danger of malaria being 

 contracted within the cantonment reservations, as the sanitary corps 

 of our Army were prepared to care for these areas, but as the 

 laborers and many enlisted men were likely to be in the canton- 

 ment town and its suburbs after dark the protective measures were 

 necessary for both. The important problem then was to do thorough 

 work rapidly in all localities where naval, army and war industry 

 employees were present in numbers after sundown in potential 

 malaria districts — as well as to prevent mosquitoes flying into the 

 reservations. 



