The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-08-02

| Leland -. Howard, Phi. D.. WASH, d.
c.: Zone Of the most prominent entomo-
ogists IN the United States); DR.. Ernest
J. Lederle, president Department Of
Health Of New York; John r. Smith,
| state Entomologist Of New Jersey, aud
there are many others OF equal fame
| deserving of mention. At the annual
conference of State and Territorial
health officials, recently held at Wash
ngton d. c., and at which, 1t was my
| privilege to be present the mosquito
| problem received attention. Probably
no place has shown more remarka BILE
results in lighting this plague than Ha-
vana. Assistant Surgeon General
| Gorgas, L. s. A., makes the statement
| that In the year after the discovery by
the Army Medical Board that the mos
| quito was the means of spreading yell
low fever, that hundred thousand dol
lars, outside OF sanitary work, was
spent on mosquito determination. For
the year 1900. the year preceding the
| beginning of the mosquito work in Ha-
vana, 1876 deaths We're reported from
malaria and in 1903 only thirty-nine
deaths from malarial fever.
This is very fair measure of the
]
and the results obtained from this class
OF work. because. from the nature of the
disease. the malaria1 patient could not
be isolated and followed up. as was the
| yellow fever case, and therefore no spe-
cial work could be done toward de-
stroying the malarial infected mos
quito The consolidated report of jan
uary 1901, just before the mosquito
work commenced, showed $4,000 water
deposits containing mosquito larvae
within the city limits. The same con-
solidated report for the following jan
uary showed less than 300 for the same
area.
President Billings of the American
Medical Association, in his introduction
of the Reed Memorial Fund, spoke in
part as follows: Major Reed died
year and half ago. To the medical
world no word is necessary to say of
Reed to know who he was. The lay
public does not know him, and / am
afraid the medical public do not now
appreciate all he did. Had Reed, as
Major in the Army, performed an act
of conspicuous bravery of equal mag
nitude his name would never die"
DR.. VIM. II. WEIGH, of Baltimore, also
made some eulogistic remarks in re-
CARDS to the discovery of the commit
tee (of which Major Reed was MEM
ber), that the mosquito carried yellow
fever: His service to mankind is to be
paralleled only in two or three instances
and Walter Reed was man of unusual
charm of personality; man of the very
highest character: a man who was
fr,i I'M To taly no
work which he did. The work which
he performed is peculiarly American.
He was trained entirely in this coun
try to undertake this work and he I'M
dertook it with a complete and ade-
quate training for the purpose. The
work was undertaken under the aus
pices of our National Government at
time when we We're in military control
of the island of Cuba" DR.. Welch fur
ther said II think we can put it second
to the discovery of the control of
smallpox by vaccination. 1t means
nothing less than the control of that
most dreaded scourge-yellow fever. 1t
is a discovery which rests on scientific
| foundation. which has been put to a
practical test. and that test has re-
suited in a complete determination of
yellow fever from the island of Cuba
There was about $4,000 subscribed at
the Atlantic City meeting towards a
memorial fund for the erection of a
monument to the memory of Major
| Walter Reed, L. S. A. In connection
with this example of heroism 1t is not
amiss to mention the name of DR.. Jesse
La2ear who was a member of this
commission and who lost his life by
being inoculated with the disease and
succumbing to its fatal influence.
Henry Clay Weeks, on the subject of
Mosquito Engineering" hits the nail
fairly on the head. "A preferable term
| is economic engineering, which would
cover all the ideas involved in eXter-
mination-such as drainage of saturated
areas large or small, salt or fresh,
and their utilization for agricultural or
residence purpose; the Improvement of
the living conditions of those adjacent
to such places, generally the poorer and
more helpless class; the increase in the
tone of life of a community by its rid
dance from malaria; the stoppage of
the yellow fever plague with all its con-
sequences: the scenic attractiveness
which comes of the abolition of foul
wet places which are generally used as
dumping grounds of the wastes of a
community; the reflex and direct effect
IF humanity to animals; the increase
of comfortable outdoor living and other
results. All this is closely allied TO
health not only in the meaning from
malaria and other diseases, but in
general way in the lessening of the irri-
tations of life on which health so great
ly depends. So that the sphere of mos
quito engineering or better economic en-
cheering, is very broad. 1t becomes
powerful aid TO lettering the conditions
of life, health and the pursuit of hap
piness. Much of the engineering in the
past has been for and not against the
mosquito. This is true in every line of
work of the engineer. Ii is seen in road
building, in railroad construction, in
house construction and even in land
scape gardening-anywhere where there
is a chance to form a breeding place
or to prevent one in the disposition of
the surface of the soil. There is an
adapted sense In which the term mos
quito engineering can be used and that
is the engineering of conditions so that