The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27

or drained. The oil does not effect the water if the water Is drawn from below. places In which 1t Is undesirable to place oil, such as watering troughs for stock, lily ponds, etc, can be kept from the ''wigglers'' by putting in gold fish. It Is well to put fine wire netting over cis- terms, wells and tanks of water in ev- eryday Clean away all weeds, grass and bushes about ditches, ponds and other possible breeding places, since they afford a cover for tho adult mosquitoes. Clean up vacant lots and back yards of all cans, tins. bottles and rubbish. In other words, first do away with or treat places where mosquitoes known to breed and then begin on places where they might breed. As a citizen of your community you should feel a personal re- sponsibiity for the destruction of the mosquitoes in your district and seek to cooperate with your neighbors in the work Of doing away with the breeding places. Relief in any community or ds- trict depends entirely upon the co-op- eration of the members of the commu- nity.
 Getting Rid of Mosquitoes.
 Houses should be cleared of these winged parasites by the burning of a powerful insect powder or sulphur. The mosquitoes will fall to the floor and
 
 remedies in use In houses the burning of pyrethrum powder and the catching of the mosquitoes on the walls In kerosene are probably the best, next to a thor ough screening and mosquito bars about the bed. In burning pyrethrum powder 1t is well to moisten the powder so that 1t can be molded into little cones about the size of a chocolate drop. These oones when dried, if ignited at the apex, smolder slowly, giving off an odor not unlike that of the prepared punk which boys in this country use to light fire crackers. Two or three of these cones will give relief by strpefying the mos quitoes. This smoke appears to be per fectly innocuous to human beings.
 In addition to this, to kill aerial mos quitoes we have various other odors fumes or gases Among the odors are camphor and garlic. Among the fumes are tobacco, chrysanthemum powder, quassia, etc. Among the gases sulphuric oxide.
 After all. the best means which may be adopted against mosquitoes will con- sist in the abolition of their breeding places. Small pools with stagnant wa ter can be treated, and in this sense 1t is remarkable that the old larvicidal use of petroleum has not become much diff fused in those places where 1t Is very cheap, but 1t Is a great deal better to drain them or to fill them up Swamp areas must sooner or later be drained. It Is perfectly obvious that the sooner this is done the better from every point of view. not only from that of human health. but from the increased value of real estate in the neighborhood and from the practical value of the reclaimed land Itself. The time is coming and rapidly, when the drainage of large swamps will not remain a matter which concerns the individual owner of the land. but one for town or county action, and even for states.
 And 1t follows further that by tho adoption of the remedial measures here in set forth looking toward the destruc- ton in all stages of the yellow fever mosquito we may reduce to a minimum the possibilities of the transfer of the disease. This discovery and this prac- tical demonstration of it's truth 1t seems. must soon change all methods of quar- antine in the United States: and 1t seems that fin the future the gulf cities will no longer dread the disease or remain subject to the great vital and economic loss to which New Orleans Is subject at the present, and to which they have all suffered from occasional yellow fever outbreaks during the past generations.