Proceedings of Eighth Annual Meeting 



137 



construction of the park system, something ought to be done to 

 safeguard the town from malaria. The proposition was then turned 

 over to me. An investigation was started. I had very little to 

 work on at that time, except the literature by Dr. Carroll, Dr. Ross, 

 Dr. Reed, Dr. Lazear and our Dr. Howard and other American 

 authorities in the United States and Havana and Cuba. I made a 

 survey and located all the breeding places and began a study of the 

 different species of mosquitoes found in the town. Professor Theo- 

 bold Smith of the Harvard Medical School assisted us with valuable 

 suggestions and advice. 



It was quite an experience. We started an active field campaign 

 in the spring of 1902 and I remernber how the early advocates of 

 mosquito suppression talked of what good work we could do for 

 ridiculously small sums of money. We were to work miracles. 

 By the simple waving of empty hands, the mosquitoes would dis- 

 appear. That was very wrong but this notion has stayed with us 

 even to the present time to the deteriment of good field work. Our 

 people expect to buy mosquito suppression for very little money and 

 this is not possible. 



However, the public spirit of the town was aroused and the 

 men there are of a calibre who want to have all work done well. 

 Yet they are good business men who want it done as cheaply as 

 possible. From time to time, our appropriations have increased and 

 we have carried on the work intensively and successfully for the 

 past twenty years. We have had our ups and downs. The stories 

 which have been told by the various men who have read their papers 

 to you have been like my experiences. I listen to the speakers and 

 think that I am in the past, going over the same stumbling blocks, 

 the same trials, the same opposition. 



This is the twenty-first year we have been doing it. I think we 

 can fairly lay claim to being one of the pioneer municipalities in 

 this part of the country in anti-mosquito work. 



There have been other cities and towns in Massachusetts which 

 have attempted to do anti-mosquito work during the past twenty 

 years. Of these, Boston, Watertown, Cambridge, Newton, Revere 

 and Winthrop are cities and towns prominently in mind. There 

 have been many well-to-do residents in other cities and towns who 

 have attempted to undertake the suppression of the mosquitoes on 

 their premises and the areas nearby. These attempts have failed 

 more or less for want of municipal and neighborly co-operation and 

 the moral support of the public, as the result of over-expectation 



