ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR HO WARD. 417 
on bee diseases, was discontinued and intensive extension work was 
begun. Specialists were sent out, held meetings, addressed more 
than 26,000 beekeepers, visited the apiaries, and gave personal in- 
struction, with the result that the honey crop was great] y increased. 
Our exports of honey to allied countries have increased at least ten 
times over those of any period previous to the war, and in the mean- 
time the domestic consumption of honey has greatly increased. 
Returning once more to the important subject of medical ento- 
mology: During the period of the war the Bureau of Entomology 
maintained a thorough cooperation with the Office of the Sur- 
geon General of the Army in the matter of experimental work on 
insect problems. Under the National Research Council's committee 
on medicine a sub-committee on medical entomology was established, 
of which the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology was made chair- 
man, and Doctor Riley, of the University of Minnesota, and Doctor 
Brues, of the Bussey Institution of Harvard University, were the 
other members. Important work on the louse question was done by 
Doctors Moore and Hirschfelder, of the University of Minnesota, 
the former an entomologist and the latter a chemist, and by Doctor 
Lamson, of the Connecticut Agricultural College. Under this com- 
mittee an enormous amount of experimental work was done with the 
different health problems in which insects are concerned. 
For example, every suggestion that came to the War Department 
in regard to the control of the body louse was referred to the ento- 
mological committee or to the Bureau of Entomology, and those 
which were promising were experimentally tested, either at Wash- 
ington or at Minneapolis, or for a time . at New Orleans, where a 
branch laboratory was instituted. At the request of the Army War 
College and the Medical Department, as well as the Chemical Warfare 
Service, tests were made of a new poisonous gas. This led to exten- 
sive experiments in cooperation with the Chemical Warfare Service 
leading to the possible utilization of the gases used in warfare as 
fumigants for the control of insects and diseases. At the request of 
the Quartermaster's Corps a complete investigation was made of all 
of the processes of the American process of laundering adopted by 
the Army, and also of the dry-cleaning processes and the hat-repair 
processes. In these investigations the cooperation of the entomolo- 
gists of the Bureau of Entomology with chemists of the Quarter- 
master's Corps resulted in the perfecting of the laundry processes 
so that it is now possible to guarantee the complete control of vermin 
in the laundrj'^ if the laundering is carried out according to the 
methods recommended, which are very slightly different from those 
in common use. It was found that the laundry machinery gave 
ample means for any sterilization of clothing necessary. In the in- 
