MAN VERSUS MOSQUITO

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 118, 14 November 1925, Page 16

MAN VERSUS MOSQUITO

, CONTBOLLING A PEST.

"Man' to-day is-'up against' the 'mosquito, and' has to fight to live at all. In niany-plaees it is a question of mosquito,or man, and if the insect Is permitted to breed without any control of its activities man must finally leave the place, as. the insect will certainly dominate." -These words were used by Sir Richard Gregory, who presided at' the opening of the British Mosquito Control Institute, Hayling Island, Hampshire, reports a special correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph.". A few years ago Hayling Island was in places infested by mosquitoes, and: Mr. J. 3?. Marshall, a prominent resident, aroused tho interest of the-inhabitants, and a campaign was started. The.variety of. mosquito was identified, and its b'reeding'groujids located and destroyed. Not content.with this, Mr. Marshall, almost entirely out of his own resources, built the.institute, which has a demonstration museum, laboratory, a drawing and record oflßee, photo* graphia. room, workshop, and living accommodation for research workers and students. As a result of the work that has been 'done, declared Sir Richard Gregory, there was no place amongst those similarly situated that ■was.more free from mosquitoes than was Hayling Island. He added: "It is one of the glories of science that some of the best work has been done by non-"professional workers—men who have taken to the study of Nature purely for tHe Jove of it. This institute is the outcome of work of that kind."

Sir Donald Boss, direetornn-chief of the Boss Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, who declared the British Mosquito Control Institute open, said that the ultimate aim w^s to contro,l,not ajone mosquitoes, but all pests which affecteii crops., and herds, During the last eighty years the average length of human life had been prolonged by about 50 per cent., but man still died of diseases which would probably be conquered some day. More money must be spent on medical research. At present each Briton gave about Id per year- for the furthering of research work- The day would, he wag sure, come when all these, fertile tracts of the world which were'npw dominated arid ravaged by King Malaria and King Mosquito iwould. be laid open to civilisation j but tnishappy result would, only be attained :by more thought, by more research, and,by a firmer determination to make the most of the beautiful world in. which we lived.