The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-13

the city; the ''anopheles brigade" for
 working Tn the suburbs and neighbor-
 brigade" for killing mosquitoes that | have become infected.
 For the purpose of more systematic
 districts. To each % dIssrict srHsa is nse assigned
 an Inspector and assistant The in- spector visits every day a number Of
 houses assigned to him for inspection
 that day. He notes the condition of | the houses with regard to places where | mosquitoes can breed, and to the ob- | servance of the municipal ordinances on this subject
 The mayor issued an ordinance, early | In the year, requiring that everybody having water on their premises, should keep 1t mosquito proof. and fixed a dinance The assistant accompanies | the inspector with a couple of cans of oil, from which he pours about a pint
 into each cess-pool. If vessels with
 ing to law, were found. 1t was re- ported to the office. and the man | fined. and if. on the next inspection. un- protected receptacles were again found | tacle destroyed. This process. in Ha- vana, has been most eminently sue cessful in its results.
 The first inspection in Havana show ed every house, almost without excep- tion. to have some deposit containing larvae, somewhere on the premises. The last inspection, for the month of De- cember, of 16.l21 houses showed only
 vation as to the number of adult mos- QuitOes bears this out. From many houses in Havana they have entirely disappeared. and in nearly all, are very much lessened.
 MT Le Prince, the officer in charge of this brigade. estimates that there were only about 1-10 the number of | mosquitoes in Havana at the end of | the beginning of that year. and my personal observations would tend to confirm this estimate.
 Home of StegOmyia. believe that. practically, in city l such as Havana, the mosquitoes are bred within the house which they trouble. and that the yellow fever mos lquiito--the stegomyia-Senerally breeds
 in the rain water barrel and receptacle. If this be the case. 1t can be seen what | great effect the work of the stegom- via brigade must have had. At the be- ginning of the year, this mosquito had
 26,000 breeding places, in 26,000 diff | ferent houses in Havana; at the end of the year. in these same houses, there were only 500 breeding places. This brigade has been continued all during | the year. the force varying according to the necessity of the case, the maxi mum employed being 36 and the mini mum 22.
 The Anopheles brigade was organized for the purpose of looking after the l suburbs, where a good deal of ditching
 had to be done. It was found that larvae were breeding wherever the ground was irrigated and a hole or de-
 pression was left to retain the water. All these farms and grass lands have
 been ditched and drained by this
 brigade. All the irrigation ditches and sewers have been cleaned, both the beds and the banks. of grass and vegetation. the aim of the brigade being to drain rlanQQ as could not be drained were oiled. but the use of oil to any great extent has
 been found impracticable in the service of this brigade. In the fields and in
 In any satisfactory manner. and in the
 larger pools, it would be quickly blown to one side.
 There are several square miles of | city, about q mile distant, between Ha- vana and Guanabacoa. from which Ha- vana Is separated by an arm of the bay. | No attempt was made to do anything
 with most of this swamp land The mosquitoes breeding in these places seldom or never migrate to the city. 1 As far as we can tell, mosquitoes are no worse on the side of the city next which these swamps lay, than in other parts.
 The old quarries on the north and
 west sides of the city gave us con
 pHmp hss besn Saced by ha the Department and the depression kept
 dry by pumping In the other. MT. Le Prince found out that, by digging
 down to the rock and scraping the earth
 so that. In many places, by digging a
 hole and barring the rock for couple
 of yards. he has succeeded in getting rid of the water.
 This brigade was divided into sec tions, each section in charge of fore man. so that the brigade was generally at work in half a dozen different places.
 ne whoo o one erSs eSe se orae sner hs has also varied as necessity indicated, with a maximum of 150 and minimum of A. The work is still being pushed. The suburbs now are being well drain
 work in this direction. but. as the rainy season comes on. the whole work of
 last year will have to be gone over | and the grass. etc. cleaned out of the ditches. FumigatiOn Process.
 For killing infected mosquitoes. the the yellow fever brigade was organiz- | ed, the plan being to kill all infected
 mosquitoes in the suspected houses, and on the possibility of some having es- capped from the infected houses. to kill | also, all the mosquitoes in contiguous houses. A Immigration with pyrethrum powder Is used for this purpose. Pyre- l thrum is not the best mosquitocide, but | 1t inJures no fabric and leaves no odor. | It intOxicates the mosquito and brings | him to the ground, where he can be swept up. As the great part of the
 success for any scheme for yellow fever | must depend upon having the cases promptly reported. every effort Is made | to Inconvenience the physicians and the people concerned as little as pos sible. By using pyrethrum powder, you can fumigate a room, kill all the mosquitoes and allow the occupant to come back within a period of two hours. No fabric is injured in the room. and no disagreeble odor left. We use sul- phur wherever there Is nothing that can be injured.
 Whenever suspect of yellow fever Is reported, the squad goes at once to the house and screens the room or rooms in which the patient desires to be kept. We have ready made screens,
 and the patient is generally screened within two hOurs after 8 case is re-