The age-herald., 1902-04-07
The War Aqainst Mosquitoes.

From the New York Evening Post
 The literature relating to mosquitoes Is multiplying at a great rate. Dr. L. 0. Howard, whose services in this field have been frequently adverted to in our col umns reviews, in a recent number or Science, two new works on the subject One of these, by F. V. Teobald, is pub lished by the British Museum. It is in three volumes. It describes in detail 34O species of culicidae, distributed In twenty three genera, JOS of the species and 10 of the genera being new to sctence O1 the species. 13l belongs to the old genus Gu lex, and of these 51 are new to science Of the malaria bearing genus Anopheles 39 species are described of which l2 are new to science. For North America 37 species are described, of which 5 are new.
 No other country has profited so much as Cuba by the discovery that the mos quito is the purveyor of disease to hu- man being. For two centuries yellow fever had made Havana its chief strong hold and 1t seemed bound to cling to 1t In defiance of all sanitary measures. While smallpox, typhoid and other dis eases had been exterminated. or great ly reduced, there were in 1900 1244 cases of yellow fever, with BIO deaths and the prospects for 1901 were gloomy. The
 
 make an experimental test of pr. Fin lays theory that a particular kind of mosquito is responsible for the transmits sion of yellow fever. The usual quaran tine regulations and interference with commerce were dropped measures were taken to exterminate the mosquitoes, and victims of the fever were carefully screened from them. Result: Only eigh- teen deaths during the whole year, and 1f pod 1afn ho or against the mosquitoes was begun. And although October and November rank among the worst months for yellow fever no cases at all occurred between Sept em- Der 2S, 19O0 and February 15. 1902, the date when the report on the vital statis- tics of the city of Havana for 1901 was closed.
 Major Gorgas, its author. does not ex- aggerate when he claims in this report, In behalf of the army, that it has estab- lished the fact that yellow fever Is only transmitted by certain species of mos quito, discovery that it's power for saving human life, is only excelled by Jenner's great discovery, and as time goes on it will stand in the same class at that great boon to mankind" It is now wishin the power of health boards to quickly abolish the greatest menace to life in the tropics. As for the Cubans in particular, they have especial reason to regret that their authorities did not make practical use of pr. Finlay's sug- gestion, which was made as early as 1se1. Adding the figures contained in one of the tables included in Major Gorgas' report, We find that, if the recent radical measures had been adopted then, more than 5000 lives might have been saved in these years in Havana alone.
 It is quite likely that Dr. Finlays dis covery regarding what Is now called the Stegenyia would still be ignored had it not been for the recent demonstration by English German and Italian men of science that another genus of the mos quito the Anopheles, is responsible for the transmission of malaria. Some of the South American Indians appear to have had an instinctive knowledge of this fact and Humboldt came within an inch of discovering 1t. Now that we know the simple truth 1t seems strange to us that Stanley should not have guessed it when he wrote in his Darkest Africa" that Emin Pasha informed him that "he d. ways took mosquito curtain with him. as he believed that 1t was an excellent protector against miasmatic exhalations of the night" It remained for Majo Ross. Dr. Koch and several Italian in- vestigators' to dispel these superstitious notions about .miasmatis exhalations of the night" and to demonstrate beyond a possibility of a doubt that the Anopheles mosauito is the principal, If not the only, transmitter of malaria.
 In view of the billions of mosquitoes that infest all parts of this planet. 1t is lucky that only a few species. owing to flff ft 9R8f -tt3 fefi NIB F-ia' 7fftfts "