l62 



^ 'Armed with the knowledge thus acquired the Princeton 

 Committee then cast about for means to put their ideas into 

 deeds. It was decided that the town, or rather some of its bene- 

 ficient members and institutions, would be able and willing to 

 contribute some $5,0001 or over, and after promises were ob- 

 tained the Princeton Committee went to the Mercer County 

 Mosquito Commission to enhst their aid in getting the Board of 

 Freeholders of Mercer County to appropriate $5,000 to carry 

 the thing through. After consulting the Director of the Experi- 

 ment Station at New Brunswick as to the feasibility of the plan, 

 the commission asked the freeholders and they appropriated 

 the money, and the work was begun under the supervision of 

 an engineer, Mr. C. S. Sincerbeaux." 



This work is at present only partly done. And yet a large 

 and important part of it is finished. The worst pools around 

 the basin have been eliminated, and other large bodies have been 

 filled or drained. The committee must still collect money to 

 push the work to completion. 



Certain larger property holders in the region have attended to 

 the difficulties in their own portions of the district. The Walker- 

 Gordon Farm, St. Joseph's College, and the Rockefeller In- 

 stitute have done or are doing thorough work based on the 

 survey. This work has only extended over one summer, and 

 yet good results have been shown already, although the com- 

 mittee hardly dared hope for them at so early a period. 



Briefly these results are about as follows: In 1914, 127' cases 

 of malaria were reported to the Princeton Board of Health ; in 

 1915, 65 cases were reported; in 1916, 8 cases were reported. 



A study of these figures has led the Commission to believe 

 that the fall in cases from 127 in 191 4 to 65 in 191 5 was due 

 to two factors. First, more careful diagnosis by the town 

 physicians, who began using a blood test before reporting any 

 chills and fever as malaria, and second, to a very efficient clean- 

 ing up of the town and warning to the pepole of the danger, 

 with methods of avoiding it. 



Nineteen hundred and sixteen, however, was a fine mosquito 

 year, with its wet weather and favorable temperatures for mos- 



