The destruction of the insect may be accomplished by fumigations with py rethrum powder, or with sulphur diox ide, 2 to 2 pounds of sulphur being burned for each 1000 cubic feet of space. In using pyrethrum the bodies of the insects should be swept up and burned, as this agent does not always kill, but simply stupefies or partially asphyxiates. The sulphur dioxide is, on the contrary, a true insecticide.
The propagation of mosquitoes may be limited or prevented by the draining or filling up of ponds, pools, or collec tions of stagnant water, by the screening of water-barrels, cisterns, and tanks, pre venting the oviposifing of the female mosquitoes, or by the destruction of the and by the application of petroleum.
Grounds should he drained, weeds cut down and burned, and the grass of lawns kept closely cut, destroying harboring places for fully developed insects, and effecting a drying of the soil and ren dering it less fit for the propagation of the pests. The subject has therefore re solved itself largely into a question of house and communal sanitation.
The methods pursued in Havana, Cuba, in stamping out yellow fever are summarized by Dr. Charles J. Finlay, Chief Quarantine Officer of Havana, in an address before the Conference of State and Provincial Boards of Health of North America, New Haven, Conn., October 2S, 1902. Dr. Finlay is quoted as follows:— "That the essential conditions for stamping out yellow fever from an in fected locality are: (1) to protect yel low-fever patients from the bites of the special yellow-fever mosquitoes; (2) to destroy all mosquitoes which may have reached yellow-fever patients; (3) not to allow non-immunes to enter the in fected zone until the last of the con taminated insects may be supposed to have died; (1) to lessen the chances of propagation by adopting adequate meas ures calculated to prevent the multipli cation of mosquitoes in general." Dr. John Guiteras, in a paper read be fore the First International Sanitary Congress of American Republics, Wash ington, D. C., in December, 1902, on "Prophylaxis against Yellow Fever," de scribes the following as the method adopted in Havana for the safe manage ment of a case of yellow fever:— "The room occupied by the patient is at once closed by wire gauze. False win dows and doors of all sizes are provided by the department, and they are at once adjusted to the openings in the TOM. One person, as nurse, is allowed to re main in the room, and a guard is placed at the wire-gauze door. The latter, and
other openings that may communicate with other apartments in the house, arc temporarily closed with stout manila paper in order to prevent the entrance 01 pyrethrum smoke in the room occu pied b the patient. The rest of the house is now fumigated. To do this all compartments are carefully closed. Strips of paper are pasted over all cracks. Even open halls and courts are closed with screens of manila paper. A good deal of ingenuity is displayed in rapidly constructing and putting together these improvised screens. so that the most ir regular and open places are converted into closed chambers hermetically sealed against the exit of smoke and mosqui toes.
"Alter the fumigation of the house the patient is transferred to one of the fumigated rooms, previously closed with wire gauze, and the sick chamber is then disinfected in the same manner. Neigh boring houses, unless evidently incom nmnicated with the infected house, are treated in the same way. As previously stated, the process is often much simpli fied by removing•the patient to Las An imas Hospital.
routine of disinfection is as fol lows: The inspector or chief of the squad assigns one man to each of the windows or openings in the room. The duty of each man is to close the opening perfectly by pasting strips of newspa pers over all cracks and joints. Upon completing his work he must write his initials on the window-frame. While this is being done the inspector has measured the cubic space of the room. f possible, an opening is left somewhere for the admission of light; it may be a glass pane or an opening covered with manila paper. On the window-sill or floor beneath this opening a sheet of moistened white paper is placed. It has been found that the mosquitoes, during the fumigation, flock toward this open ing, and when paralyzed by the smoke they are apt to fall upon the paper be low, where they can be more easily gath ered afterward. The pyrethrum powder is now placed in pans and ignited by set ting fire to a small amount of alcohol in each pan. One door has been left open for the exit of the men. Before leaving all clothing is shaken and scattered about the room. The exit door is now closed from the outside, its joints and cracks are pasted over, and the seal of the department is placed upon the strips of paper. Pyrethrum is burned in the proportion of 1 pound to every 1000 cubic feet of space.