Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-10-22
Or. Smith Sho"s The Danger
Lurking in Tack Yards.
SCore2 Viar EXHIBIT.

Hundreds of city hall visitors stopped
at the east entrance today to view DR.,
Claude Smiths mosquito farm. The
city bacteriologist is Matching out
healthy specimens of the insect pest at
the rate of several hundred a day, Just
to show Atlantans how easy it would
he to get rid of them if everybody
veould work together.
The exhibit is simply an old tin can
half full of rainwater, just like those
i'll your own back yard. Over this is
a, tall glass globe to keep. the mosqui
pes from flying away when they hatch
cut As the average female lays about
LAO eggs at once, and the old can SEEM
cd to be headquarters for quite a col
ony, DR.. Smiths exhibit does not lack
animation. There are mosquitoes to
burn
"Swattine" Campaign Works.
Atlanta has swatted the skeeter so
effectually and efficaciously this sea-
son that lotions have been a drug on
the market, and mosquito bars have
been converted into shirtWaists for the
Peachtree parade. But it was not al
way thus Time was when porch par
ties were held in the Easements, and
even the policemen complained they
could not sleep on their beats. They
have ragged clear into November in past
years.
DR. Smith is the man who put the
| sIkeet in mosquitoes. He began it in
the summer of 1905, when New Orleans
caught the yellow fever Memphis quar-
| antined, farmers along Southern rail
| roads patrolled the tracks with shot
guns to keep refugees from leaving
trains. and Atlanta, after considerable
| discussion. threw open her gates and
welcomed everybody who had the price
of ticket and a board bill Jim
Woodward was mayor then, by the way,
aud he was one of the first to declare
Atlanta an immune city.
Not that Atlanta ever had the we'll
known stegomyia, the mosquito which
extracts a yellow fever germ from one
sufferer, flies next door and inserts it
| ca refully in another slumberer. Neither
does Atlanta harbor the noted ano-
phees, whose specially is malaria
| transportation.
The culex was Atlantas pest and
though he bears no fatal disease, he
is hungrier than poor mans dog and
aumses himself by eating large chunks
out of a sleeper's cheek and leaving a
burning welt to pay for his meal. The
cu'ex is the sweet singer of insectdom
| the second story worker, the house
breaker He is the boy who huns OPP
cratic arias in a minor key half the
| MIGHT sideslepS all the sWats aimed at
| him and then settles softly down and
rams his singer under your epidermis
| about foot.
IN tbe old DAYS, when the mosquito
hourished and the prohibition law was
NOT the faVorite method of combating
| him was to imbibe several large, I'M
| wa Tered drinks early III the evening.
| The imblber was TOO intoxicated to feel
main no to midnight, and after that the
| mo suuitoes too drunk TO bite. Even now
| theme are those who still sigh for the old
| days
| But Or. Smith had an idea that mos
oIIir,oes could be chased out of the COM
mul,ity, and persuaded council to give
| him $4,000 for the first years work.
] The money was spent in putting kero-
sene, and crude petroleum. mixed, on
the surface of stagnant pools. Inspec-
tors looked up such places and then the
oilers oiled them. Things ran smooth
, w after that. Each year there has
been a mosquito Appropriation. and
though it ran only to 1880 this season
effectual work has been done.
"The old idea that mosquitoes breed
in wines and weeds Is wrong" said Dr.
Smith today. "They breed only in wa
ter. A tin can or an old beer bottle
full of water will hatch out thousands
of them. And they are Matched full
grown and ready to bite. too. There's
no s,nch thing as a little, young mos
quitoF
IF we had rain every two weeks,
here, wouldn't be any mosquitoes. 1t
takes that long for the eggs to hatch,
and every fresh rain washes the eggs
awayt 1t is a dry season which brings
MOSQUITOES Our rainy summer has
helped in that particular"