MOSQUITOES AND M \l.\Kl \. 1 ;; 
ciency of the parties was reduced, at ;i very conservative estimate, by 
25 per « -t » 1 1 1 . 
•■ In my recent visit in this field I found one man sick in cadi of 
the parties I saw and one man who had just returned from the 
hospital Leaving the field for good. A similar state of things was 
reported from the other parties. I regard the sickness as practically 
all of a malarial nature, as extreme care was taken in all the camp- 
to use nothing hut boiled water except in a few Instances where arte- 
sian water from great depths was available. In all the camps the 
tent- have been screened, and in every case where the topographer has 
lived for any time 'on the country' there has been infection. A- 
illustrating the value of the precautions generally taken by our camp 
parties, I might cite the fact that lasl year in West Virginia with 30 
men living in camp, with typhoid fever prevalent in the neighborhood, 
no cases developed, while with 6 men living on the country where 
the same care could not he taken regarding the water supply, two 
cases of typhoid developed." 
In estimating the weight of Doctor Smith's statement, it must he 
borne in mind that the men of his field parties are exceptionally in- 
telligent and prepared to take all ordinary precautions. 
Throughout the region in question malaria is practically universal. 
The railroads suffer, and at the stations throughout the territory it is 
practically impossible to keep operators steadily at work. This re- 
duction in efficiency in the surveying parties and in the local railroad 
officials is moreover probably very considerably less than the reduc- 
tion in the earning capacity of the entire population, which, however, 
i> necessarily scanty. 
In an excellent paper entitled " The relation of malaria to agricul- 
tural and other industries of the South," published in the Popular 
Science Monthly for April. 1903, Prof. Glenn W. Herrick, then of 
the College of Agriculture of Mississippi, after a consideration of 
the whole held, concludes that malaria i> responsible for more sick- 
ness among the white population of the South than any disease to 
which it is now subject. The following forcible statement referring 
to the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South 
Carolina is in Professor Herrick's words: 
" We must now consider briefly what G35,000 or a million cases of 
chills and fevers in one year mean. It is a self-evident truth that it 
mean- well for the physician. But for laboring men it means an 
immense loss of their time together with the doctors' fees in many 
instances. If members of their families other than themselves be 
affected, it may also mean a loss of time together with the doctors' 
fee.-. For the employer it mean- the Loss of labor at a time perhaps 
when it would he of greatest value. If it does not mean the actual 
loss of labor to the employer it will mean a loss in the efficiency of 
