The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-02
The Inject plscoxered.

Samuel S. Cord, general manager of
the Laurel Springs Realty Company,
realizing that drastic measures must
be taken, secured the services of DIR.
Hurt, of the health board, and of DR..
Wright, physicians in Gloucester town
ship. AS most of the complaints came
from the Inn, thorough inspection
was made of that building. At first the
searchers were baff1ed in their attempt
to discover the cause of the complaints.
They found many insects peculiar to
such resorts throughout the East, but
to none of them could the complaints
OF the residents be traced. When the
search had been all but given up, one
of the physicians, in looking at a pic
ture in one of the rooms to which his
artistic eye had been drawn, noticed a
small red speck moving rapidly across
the glass. With the sharp end of
toothpick he impaled the object, and
after microscopical inspection, the
cause of all the trouble was known to
have been found.
So small was the insect and so inn
portant was the question of getting
thoroughly rid of IL that every room in
the house-and the inn contains some
forty of them, all recently newly fitted
up-was stripped entirely of all it's fur
nishings, even to scraping off the paper
on the wall. The rooms were then
made air tight, and formaldehyde, in
the form of gas, was forced into them
through the keyholes. After this had
been done, the same chemical solution
in the form of a liquid, was used in
washing the. wainscoting and other
wood work of the apartments. 1t is
believed that the small, but pestiferous
invader has now been conquered.
How the Insect Behaved
When the first insect was discovered
the physicians began to watch for it's
appearance on any persons that COM
planned of suffering from its bites. It's
favorite time of attack seemed to be
at night, when a person was asleep.
The wound inflicted, as has been said,
resembled that resulting from a mos
quito bite, except that in every case
the insect died soon after the attack.
In some cases IL was found in the
wound itself; in others it was discov-
cred an inch or so away from the bite.
always under the skin and always re-
sembling very small red spot on the
surface. 1t never attacked the face or
hands, but always some part of the
body protected by the clothing.
All speculations as to what the in
sect is and where Ii came from have
not resulted in any satisfactory con-
clusion among the investigators. Nat
uralists from Philadelphia, particularly
from the Academy of Natural Science.
visited the place, and saw the insect,
but. II is said. could give no name to
II nor any idea of what ii was except
that II was of a tropical species. 1t
was hardly discernible to the naked
eye, but when placed under the micro
scope was seen to have a crab-like ap-
pearance. with rows of legs on either
side of its body. It's color was red.
resembling more a minute blood speck
than anything else. 1t could travel
like lightning" as one of the residents
described its motions.
Its introduction into Laurel Springs
is as mysterious as Is the insect itself.
Some believe IL came from Cuba with
some United States army material that
was brought to the place last year.
Others think IL came to this country
in the shape of eggs hidden in the AZ
rican fibre that was used in some Of
the mattresses at the inn.