Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-07-13
Home Facts.

The pyrethrum roseum, or persian
camomile," is the powdered leaf of a
harmless flower growing in Caucasian Asia
in great profuslon, where for centuries it
has beon used to rid the natives of insects.
With finely prepared dust made from
these flowers, which can be purchased of
almost any reliable druggist at about
seventy cents pound, the house fly, the
wicked flea and the mosquito may all be
put to flight or to rest. In order to enjoy
this delicious riddance 1t Is only necessary
| to heap up with little cone one teaspoon
full of the drug pyrethrum, touch it with a
lighted match and watch the thin blue line
of smoke as it rises to the ceiling and is
waited through the air. changing the busy
drone of insect life into weak wall of in
sect woe. Pretty soon down they come
plump on 10 the table and over your paper,
spin on their tiny backs and then sheathe
their lancets, curl up their hair-like legs
and interest one no more. Up stairs the
little ores sleep unmolested, though there
are thousands of mosquitoes in the room !;
the pests are sick unto death, and cling
sadly to the walls, too feeble to think of
tapping the rich warm blood that flows in
ruddy little limbs just below; the fume of
the pyrethrum has settled their business,
and while it fingers in the room outsiders
are unwilling to make an entry, though the
windows are raised and the lattces are
only half closed. Gauze bars are hot
stutfy things at best, and one must be sadly
driven TO attempt to sleep under such a
cover; then, as we all know, the mosquito
always finds his way through, no matter
how carefully one may tuck up Its folds
about the couch.
Smoke from the Persian camomile or Its
dusty powder we have found most effica-
cious, and your readers will bless me when
once they try it. The purity of the drug
must be assured. This can readily be
tested. Ii must have bright buff color
be light, readily burned, and give a pleas
ant, tea-like fragrance; one pinch should
kill q dozen flies. confined in a bottle, at
once. When it fails of these properties 1t
has been adulterated. In common use, IN
large or breezy rooms, where, from great
dIlution, it fails to kill, it nevertheless pro-
duces en- insect life, through its volatilized
essential oil or resin, undoubted nausea,
vertigo, respiratory spasms, and paralysis.
1t acts upon them through the minute spir
ACES, the breathing tubes, that stud the
surfaces of their little bodies, and form the
delicate networks of veins in their tiny
wings. To human beings it is, so far as
can ascertain. entirely innoxious, and not
disagreeable. That we-a family of eight
persons, infants and adults-have lived for
several weeks in an atmosphere of pyre-
thrum dust and smoke combined, during
this present summer, is sufficient proof of
my statement. 10 the skeptlc | recon-
mend alInteresting experiment Put the
pyretbrum into a close, warm room, where
dies most love to swarm, just after dark.
shut the door, and make another visit in
thirty minutes. The sight of milliousof dead
and sguirming vermin on the fio0r will do
his heart good-that is, if he is human
beings and not an angel.
Having drafted our plan of battle against
these little foes, it becomes proper to speak
OF the care of the wounded. To cure
r-osnuito stings, / know hSrhing better
than twenty per cent. solution in either
oil or water, of pure carbolic acid. This
is to be rubbed well on the painful spot.
To baihe ones tingling hands and smartihy
limbs with this solution, gives cooling,
grateful sensation that is hard to describe.
Csrbolic soap will do almost as well, or an
ointment compounded oi carbol, camphor
and cosmoline.