RIDDANCE OF :MOSQUITOES. The most effective way of relieving a neighborhood of mosquitoes consists in abolishing the breeding places. All accumulations of stagnant water—and these are of the most varied and frequently inaccessible character—must be removed wherever it is pos sible. Swampy lands should be drained ; hollows in old trees and stumps should be filled up; old cans and bottles should be removed; cesspools should be hermetically sealed; rain-water bar rels should be covered with tine wire gauze; the roof-troughs of houses should be frequently cleaned nut. No possible supply of standing water should be overlooked, and these will in many cases require a most careful and ingenious search. Where mosquitoes are breeding in troughs or large cement basins which are used for watering stock, fish, such as sunfish, gold fish, or top minnows (qq.v.), should be intro duced. Where other ponds exist which it is not possible to drain, the water margins should be kept clean and sharp. and superabundant vegeta tion should be removed. if the fish supply of such ponds cannot he made satisfactory, a certain amount of kerosene placed upon the surface of the water will quickly destroy mos quito larva-. This kerosening of swamp lands, where drainage is impossible or very expensive, is often a temporary remedy of great value. In malarial regions persons may be protected from the bite of the dangerous and annoying mosqui toes by the careful screening of houses and by wearing mosquito veils and gloves at night when obliged to be out of doors. Anopheles, as a rule, bites only at night. By this method the Italian Government has greatly reduced malaria in the black belt of Italy. lay protecting healthy per
sons and malarial patients as well, and by the free use of quinine with the patients, the general health of the population of that region has greatly improved. The Germans in East Africa believe that they can wipe out malaria by sim ply destroying the disease with medicine. Ma once abolished in Munan beings, there will be none for the mosquitoes to carry. In the United States extensive work has been done in the destruction of breeding places and thus re clueing the numbers of mosquitoes. Under such conditions malaria will (lie out. In Cuba, aside from protecting the early yellow-fever patients and the constant use of mosquito liars in hos pitals, yellow fever has been exterminated by house-to-house work against the breeding places of Stegomyia, this work being carried on first by the medical officers of the United States Army, and later by the health authorities of the Cuban Government. Mosquitoes, as a rule, may be stupefied by burning pyrethrum powder (Per sian insect powder). They may also be deterred from biting by anointing the skin with oil of citumella.
Consult: :Howard. .11usq itocs ( New York, ) Ross, Mosquito Brigades (London, 1902); Theobald, A Monograph of the Culir•ithc of the World ( ib., 1901) Celli, Malaria ( ib., Giles, Gnats or Mosquitoes (2d ed., 1903) ; North Shore Improvement Association, Report on Mosquitoes (New York, 1902) : Berkeley, Labo ratory Work with Mosquitoes (ib., 1902).