Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting 



81 



rate is beyond dispute. Therefore the stamping out of this disease 

 in the Armiy is of paramount importance and all mosquito work 

 done has this for its chief object. 



Another distinctive feature of work in the Army is the coopera- 

 tion between Army authorities and the U. S. Public Health Ser- 

 vice. The U. S. Health Service have established what is known 

 as an extra cantonment zone about each camp. This zone is an 

 imaginary line and elastic enough to allow of being stretched to 

 cover all cases sufficiently near the confines of the camp to in any 

 way menace the soldiers encamped therein. This provides a Gov- 

 ernment control, not only of the work in the reservation itself, but 

 of those adjoining lands which would cause trouble if neglected, 

 and as it is well known that mosquito work cannot always be strict- 

 ly localized, this extra territorial police force is a great help in 

 making ignorantly or willfully neglectful neighbors see the light. 



Perhaps one other phase of the work as done in an Army Camp 

 which might bear mentioning is that of the method of doing the 

 actual labor. H this is done by civilian labor in the employ of the 

 Quartermaster, it does not differ materially from community work. 

 But in many cases the labor has been done by enlisted men in the 

 Sanitary Corps. This makes it harder for the man in charge in 

 some ways, and in other ways lightens his burden. It is harder 

 because he has the increased responsibility of feeding, clothing and 

 disciplining his workers. Easier because as a rule it increases 

 the size of his available working force and enables him to bring 

 to more rapid maturity his outlined drainage plans. Also it is 

 most taxing to his powers of ingenuity to convince the soldier- 

 laborer that it is just as important for him to dig a ditch in this 

 country as for the soldier abroad to dig trenches there. Once 

 convinced that he is doing his bit toward winning the war, the ditch 

 goes rapidly forward. Any man who 'has handled a detachment 

 of dusky "sanitarians" is sufficiently familiar with the dark side 

 of the war to know the meaning of the word morale. 



In closing, I would emphasize the fact that successful mosquito 

 control can only be gained by methodical conscientious develop- 

 ment of a carefully conceived "modus operandi." I have tried 

 to give you, briefly, a birds-eye view of mosquito control as con- 

 ducted in an Army Camp. Time has not been taken to develop 

 in detail the different phases of the work, as it is believed that 



