484 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
war stricken areas are favorable to the spread of disease. Various 
infections have been widely distributed as a result of the wholesale 
movement and dissemination of troops and with entire nations suffering 
from malnutrition, conditions will be almost ideal for extensive epidem¬ 
ics when warm weather permits insects to become, once more, active 
carriers of disease. The control of the situation is rendered more 
difficult by the great reduction in man power. This makes it almost 
impossible to approximate the none too sanitary prewar conditions in a 
number of European countries. The seriousness of the situation is 
shown by the developments following earlier conflicts. Dr. Prinzing 
in his “ Epidemics Resulting from Wars ” has brought together evidence 
showing that “the most serious human cost of war has been not losses 
in the field, nor even the losses from disease in the armies, but the 
losses from epidemics disseminated among the civil populations.” He 
points out that it was “the war epidemics and their sequelae, rather than 
military losses, that accounted for the deep prostration of Germany 
after the Thirty Years’ War. Such epidemics were also the gravest 
consequence of the Napoleonic Wars.” Shall we allow these results 
to follow this world war? Recent investigations show that the control 
of insect borne diseases is not wholly a medical problem. The check¬ 
ing of the carriers is entomological work. The European situation 
offers unexampled opportunities for economic entomologists and sani¬ 
tarians to cooperate effectively in saving these well nigh helpless 
peoples from the logical outcome of this fearful struggle. It is conser¬ 
vation of human lives and man power at the very time when such is 
most urgently needed in the rehabilitation of nations. 
OBITUARY 
FREDERICK KNAB 
November 2, 1918. Word has just come that Mr. Frederick Knab, 
entomological assistant in the Bureau of Entomology, and, since the 
death of Mr. Coquillett, honorary custodian of the Diptera in the 
National Museum, has died. Mr. Knab first entered the Bureau in 
April, 1906, and during his twelve years’ work with us gained a very 
high rank. His scientific work was of the highest character; his read¬ 
ing was broad, and was facilitated by his knowledge of several foreign 
languages. He had traveled extensively in his earlier years, and, in 
fact, while in Brazil some time before he came to the Bureau he prob¬ 
ably contracted the obscure disease that eventually ended his life. He 
was not incapacitated for work, however, until comparatively re¬ 
cently, and during the whole period in which the disease remained 
