Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-07-09
Has Tntevfergd With Mans Plans, Ambi-
tions and Military Campaigns, and To-day
Costs This Country $500, 900, 900 o. Year

r HISTORY teaches That the mosquito has been the
pest OF mankind from the earliest times.
d - Science has recently demonstrated that the
mosquito can be exterminated. Is the world ready to
cooperate in the gigantic, but entirely possible, task OF
Kidding the earth of this nuisance?
Presumably there were mosquitoes In the Garden
OF Eden; and If so. Adam and Eve, for obvious rea-
sons, must have found them a serious drawback to
the delights of that paradise.
Certainly they are very ancient insects. They ex.
listed on the earth millions Of years before the first
human beings arrived-a fact proved by the dis
covery Of fossil specimens preserved in the strata Of
rocks. One species of the Tertiary Age (happily ex.
tinct) was much bigger than any modern mosquito.
Naturalists have named 1t CuleX damnatorum, or "gnat
OF the damned" II must have been a terror.
According to T%erodotus. the ancient historian,
there were prodigious numbers Of mosquitoes in Egypt
In the days of the Pharaohs. They were such an at,
Fiction. indeed, that rich men built tall towers and
slept on the roofs thereof-the habit of these insects
being not to fly more than thirty feet or SO above the
ground; though In modern houses they commonly
climb from floor to floor or go up in elevatrs, even
to the top OF a skyscraper.
DR.. L. o. Howard. chief government entomologist.
and the foremost living mosquito expert, writes that On
one occasion the army OF Julian the Apostate was so
fercely assailed by mosquitoes as to be forced to re-
treat. In another military instance. Sapors, King OF
Persia was compelled to raise the siege OF Nisibis by
swarms OF mosquitoes which, attacking his elephants
and beasts of burden, caused a rout OF his FORCES.
In Greece, centuries before the birth Of Christ. the
1nnd DltdNtS Oh many loWHS ere ui!Nci D. oS'luitot
to abandon their homes. Monte, a rich city OF Ionia.
was by this cause deprived of its population. Per.
gamos, an important Asiatic centre OF trade, suffered
In the same way.
The glory that was Greece was not destroyed
by war. 1t was wiped out by mosquitoes. Such at all
events Is the belief accepted by modern historians.
Greece. III prehistoric times, was peopled by sue
cessive waves of invaders from TIE north--men OF
light complexion and fair hair. who built up the won
derful civilization which in some respects has not been
surpassed, if eQuaNed.
This. civilization reached its climax in the time OF
Pericles. Al that period Greece was at the height
OF her glory. Her fertile valleys were thickly
peopled; her commerce and agriculture were highly
prosperous; her military renown (she had conquered
both Persia and Egypt was such as to fulfil the ut,
most ambition Of a warlike race vigorous and we'll
trained in arms.
Then-almOst suddenly. il would seem-came the
debacle. Greece and her glory went to pieces. Her
empire and her civilization were destroyed. Even
her people vanished from the scene; for the Greeks
of today. largely Slavic OF origin, dark.haired and
dark-skinned, are certainly not descendants OF those
early settlers.