ECONOMIC LOSS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE DNITED STATES 
THROUGH INSECTS THAT CARRY DISEASE. 
INTRODUCTION. 
It has been definitely proven and is now generally accepted thai 
malaria in its different forms is disseminated among the individuals 
of the human species by the mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, and 
that the malarial organism gains entrance to the human system, so 
far a- known, only by the bite of mosquitoes of this genus. It has 
been proven with equal definiteness and has also become generally 
accepted that yellow fever is disseminated by the bite of a mosquito 
known as Stegoxnyia <<il<>j>ns (possibly by the bites of other mos- 
quitoes of the same genus), and. so far as has been discovered, this 
disease is disseminated only in this way. Further, it has been sci- 
entifically demonstrated that the common house fly is an active agent 
in the dissemination of typhoid fever, Asiatic cholera, and other 
intestinal diseases by carrying the causative organisms of these dis- 
eases from the excreta of patients to the food supply of healthy indi- 
viduals: and that certain species of fleas are the active agents in the 
conveyance of bubonic plague. Moreover, the tropical disease known 
as filariasis is transmitted by a species of mosquito. Furthermore, it 
i- known that the so-called "spotted fever" of the northern Rocky 
Mountain region is carried by a species of tick; and it has been dem- 
onstrated that certain blood diseases may be carried by several species 
of biting insects. The purulent ophthalmia of the Nile basin is 
carried by the house fly. A similar disease on the Fiji Islands is 
conveyed by the same insect. Pink eye in the southern United States 
is carried by minute flies of the genus Hippelates. The house fly 
has been shown to be a minor factor in the spread of tuberculosis. 
The bedbug has been connected with the dissemination of several dis- 
eases. Certain biting flic- carry the sleeping sickness in Africa. A 
number of dangerous diseases of dome-tic animals are conveyed by 
insects. The literature of the whole subject has grown enormously 
during the past few years, and the economic loss to the human species 
through these insects is tremendous. At the same time, this loss is 
entirely unnecessary; the diseases in question can be controlled, and 
the suppression of the conveying insects, so absolutely vital with 
certain of these diseases and so important in the others, can be brought 
about. 
