The Washington times., 1904-06-05

! finally. one summers day. fitting grace
fully in at the window of the
Boston woman's home. CHANGING up
from the volume of Emerson she was
reading. the woman looked over her
glasses at the moth, and, in calm tones.
addressed him:
why Lepidopters Sphingidae Caro-
lima, what are you doing so far from
your normal latitude?'
Now it happened that the moth had a
weak heart, and It is related that his
surprise was so great, ar being called
by his right name in n foreign land,
that he fell dead.
There may be valuable hint contain
ed in this story. Culex VulgaTis. Anophe-
les Punctipenns and Stegomyia Fasciata
have once more come among US. and ii
is at least worth while 10 hail them
wherever met with their high sounding
company names, in the bare hope that
some of them may be shocked into an
early grave, which would be greatly to
the advantage Of suffering humanity.
Culex and Anopheles.
OF course. one knows that Culex and
Anopheles and Stegomyia are different
members of the quite prolific family
vulgarly called mosquitoes. One also
knows that they have a painful methoL
Of gaining a livelihood. by inserting a
poisoned tube into the tenderest portions
of the cuticle just when one wants TO
go TO sleep, or lie back Iuxuriously in
your drifting boat or swinging ham
mock. TO watch the sun go out in
twilight
1t has also come to be generally known
that mosquitoes are instrumental I'm dis
tributing malaria and yellow fever.
What is not generally known. and what
the inertia OF public thought may pre-
vent from having a speedy acceptance,
is the fact that these dread diseases can
be transmitted in no other manner than
through the agency of the mosquito-a
fact which raises the insect from a mere
pest TO a dread devastator OF mankind.
Crusaders Against Pest.
Because of-this knowledge we find or
ganized Crusades against the pest In
many localities. especially those Of the
tropics. and learn. now without sur
prise. that the determination of the
mosquito will be one Of the first steps
toward the sanitation of the Panama
Canal strip. and that by this means the
commission hopes 10 entirely eradicate
the two diseases mentioned from the re-
gion. The preliminary work along this
line is being conducted by the Public
Health and Marine Hospital Service.
Drs. J. {. Perry and Claude c. Pierce
now being engaged in Colon and Pan
anna, respectively. in ascertaining the
conditions. The hospital service, how
ever. Is combining its work TO the towns.
and Il Is practically certain that the ac-
tual work OF sanitation. both for the
towns and strip. will fall 10 the canal
commission.
In this connection II is interesting 70
note that Dr. NJ J. ROsenau, director
OF the hygienic laboratory OF this serv-
ice, has in his cases. in the new labora-
tory at Twenty-fifth Street and Penn
sylvania Avenue. sometime over 500
mosquitoes. most OF whom have been
inoculated with yellow fever. which nc
gathered in his studies IN Havana and
on the Central American coast. for fur
| Their experimentation In this interesting
study.
Each Mosquito Has Job.
Each variety OF mosquito has mis- own
job to perform in the transmission Of
disease. Anopheles concerns herself
sort of business, the male being unable
10 bite-with malaria, and could not
transmit yellow fever II she would.
StegOmyia, on the other hand. might
live and thrive IN a inaIarial district
but so far as her efforts were concern
ed, there would not be a single add
! tiOnal case OF malaria And while these
| female insects kill one. they do not
cause you immediate discomfort. for
their bites are practically painless.
Culex. on the other hand. the big.
brown one, which raises a welt which
stings and makes one break at least one
Of the Commandments can do no fur
Their harm, her main business IN life be-
ing the propagation Of bird malaria. or
what corresponds to malaria in the bird
world.
The mosquitoes connection with dis
] ease. as described by DIT. RoseRau. is
one Of the fairy tales Of science The
malaria germ, whose full name IS
Haematozoa Malariae. when IL gets in
the blood. promptly takes possession Of
a red blood corpuscle, in the concavc
disk Of which IL makes home. growing
rapidly until it Is as big as its host. II
| then divides into a dozen OF more
spores. and then the corpuscIe breaks
UP, and each spOre becomes a now germ
20 seize on another cOrpuscle and re-
peat the process. II IS at the breaking
up point that the patient has hts chill
and fever. This round OF development
takes fOrty-eight or seventy-two hours
hence the chill every other or every
third day. called quartan and tertian
malaria. respectively.
Germs Have No Sex.
These germs have no sex. and are
therefore called asexuaL So Tar they
arc simple amoeboids. But malaria IS
a cOcciduE. Certain Of the spores be-
come crescent-shaped. and some round,
and these DO not hunt up q corpuscle.
but remain free in the blood. The cres-
cent-shaped IS a male, and the round a
female germ. II Anopheles Will just keep
away. these eventually die. and quinlEe
will kill the asexual variety. which erda
that colony OF malaria bugs"
But Mrs. Anopheles comes along and
Strives her bill deep into the poisoned
blood. OF which she takes a full draught
before she IS discovered. She, perhaps.
gets a few dozen OF tho germs. As
soon as they ind themselves in the
stomach OF the mosquito these micro
scopic folk get sociable. Countless tiny
spores are formed-tho children Of the
union The cysts burst iiberatlnRN the