Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-13
$50 VARIETIES OF MOSQUITOES
WILL BITE PHILADELPHIANS
UNLESS COUNCILS GIVE AID
Money Needed to Abate the Menace-Surgeon
Bell Tells of Fight at League Island to
Rid the Yard of the Pests

the proportion OF malaria and fevei
| spreading spcciments of mosquitoes we
I have found here. We have constantly ar.
riving at the yard, for duty on ship Ci
| marine barracks, officers and men fresh
| from tropical service. n certain proper
( ton of whom are infected with malaria
/ Many of them are without any sign OF
| 1t; vet 1t is in their blood. The merely
| annoying type of mosquito which bites
! ono of these men becomes at once ma
/ laria distributor and infccts the man in
! health wnom he next bites. We have
/ found cases of this kind, logically attribu-
table to the source I mention,
81 have seen cases of infection from
scratching n mosquito bite treated at the
Yard Tnfrmy. I know of an instance
where a civilian workman, who had his
attention directed by a mosquito biting
him on the lip as he was in the act of
driving home blow when a sledge ham,
mer, missed his mark, and thus broke
bones in the wrist OF a fellow workman
II has been impossible for men to work
in the eastern end of the island without
covering their heads and necks with net
ting, and their hands with gloves. Horses
attached to lawn mowers have become un-
manageable. and could not he worked at
all until their bodies, heads and legs were
protected. Marine drill became almost an
impossibiity last summer, for the men
cannot stand at attention nor go through
lowering over them.
WORK OF ERADICATION.
with our small appropriation of $4,000
we have been able this autumn to do Il
great deal of work toward the ercdiea-
ton of the mosquito. All the eastern
end of the island, which was a vast breed
ing ground, has been gone over care
fully. and the brush, tall grass and
weeds removed We have plowed all
al.
could collect. leveled It over, and when
the grass comes up in the spring we will
be able to cut It with a horse mower.
We have dug bitches for drainage in n
shallow shape so that the sides can
not fall in; and on the places where 1t
has been impossible to drain off the
water we shall put oil In the very early
spring We have cut in certain parts of
the island much brush, and let the sun
light at places where previously 1t never
reached. In short, we have taken about
every precauton possible. and we should
have results to certain extent next sea-
son.
But they cannot be very wide in area
unless the city co-operates in like meas
ure of work and that cannot be done un-
less the money is forthcoming. We would
like to do all we can TO destroy the bad
repute the League Island Navy Yard
has in the opinions of officers and men
throughout the service, in respect to the
mosquito pest, and make the Yard not
only more habitable during the mosquito
season, but permit those quartered there
to enjoy outdoor life, a thing that up to
this past summer, inclusive, has been
practically impossible"
officials in the Department of Public
Works did not care to commit themselves
as to the amount of appropriation needed
to star the anti-mosquito campaign which
should quickly begin by the reclamation
of marsh land in extreme South Philadel
phia. either permanent or tidewater, and
the proper draining of such territory as
cannot be reclaimed as we'll as the cut
ting of high grass, weeds and brush so
that the sun can get at spaces otherwise
impossible,
J. A. Vogelson, chief in the Bureau of
Health, expressed approval of the work
that has been done in the Navy Yard
under Doctor Bells direction, and said he
would be pleased If his bureau could have
sl0,6O0 with which to begin such part of
the work of mosquito abatement as comes
under the Jurisdiction of the Health Bu-
reau.