Bats, Mosquitoes and Dollars

The newspapers and the popular magazines have done the world in general, and this country in particular, an inestimable service in diffusing the knowledge of the danger from mosquitoes, for which we owe them, indeed, an undying debt of gratitude. But their warnings have gone unheeded; or, at least, very little attention has been given to the menace of this most malignant of insects. The author has made a truly intimate study of malaria- in fact, he has limited his private practice to that disease and typhoid fever; and he here presents to the reader the HOW and WHY of this world-wide malady.

Excerpt:

"Bats are important mosquito-destroying animals. Plying at dusk and after dark and capturing all flying insects upon the wing, they devour large numbers of mosquitoes in times of mosquito prevalence. Mr. C. Few Seiss at a meeting of the Feldman Collecting Social in Philadelphia, June 19th, 1901, stated that he had dissected a specimen of the common brown bat (EPTESICUS FUSCUS) and had found its stomach full of mosquitoes. The suggestion has been made by Mr. A. C. Weeks of Brooklyn that an attempt be made to breed bats artificially on account of their importance as mosquito destroyers, but no one seems to have taken the matter up.

"Greatly impressed with the value of bats as mosquito destroyers Dr. Chas. A. R. Campbell, formerly city bacteriologist of San Antonio, Texas, has erected a novel bat-breeding house six miles south of that city. His idea is that the bats will rapidly become so numerous with this admirably-adapted nesting place as to rid the neighborhood of night-flying mosquitoes; and that, at the same time, the entire expense will be more than paid for by having the structure built in such a manner that the bat guano can be readily collected and taken away.''

The object of this little volume is to impress the reader with the importance of a badly-named disease, malaria, with which he has been familiar since childhood, and which he probably still views in a spirit of levity. It is sought to impress him with the fact that it is his kind, and his kind only, that is responsible for its perpetuation, and that it is a scheme of Nature's to use the red corpuscle of man and the body of one of her lowly insects, the malarial mosquito, to serve as intermediary hosts for the continuance and perpetuation of a still lower form of life. This being true, it is the only human disease that Nature, per se, does not cure, as she never defeats her own schemes.

It would be of little import to inform the reader of the untold suffering and the colossal economic loss caused the world over by malaria, amounting to a hydra, and thus leave him high and dry; hence the author expounds not merely one of Nature's most wonderful creatures, but THE most wonderful of Nature's creatures, who will do battle and prove to be the Hercules that will slay this Hydra of modern times.

But it is not a battle planned by man, to be followed by terrible suffering, loss of human lives, and frightful devastation: it is to be a faunal battle, planned in the long ago by that infallible strategist, Old Dame Nature, and which has been going on for ages; but only now has the Old Lady been coaxed in the right direction and induced to disclose one of the most important of her innumerable secrets.

It is truly a battle royal, marshalled not by that highest of earthly things, the human brain, but by the matchless faculties given by Nature; and, instead of the battle being followed by cruel devastation, the fields of combat have been converted into lands of peace and happiness, and the warriors, not in the least diminished in number but flushed with victory, return to their "garrisons" carrying multitudes of their victims, which later are converted into DOLLARS.

The "garrisons" are the homes of the faunal army, and are called by the author "Bat-roosts;" but they might very fittingly be termed "Palladiums." So well does this natural army do its duty, that, if some individual, from whose soul AVARICE has drained the last drop of the milk of human kindness, in quest of more money, should build such a "Garrison," "Palladium," or "Bat-roost," he unconsciously would be converted into a benefactor.

To this book is added a paper on the "FUNCTIONS OP THE SPLEEN," a study made possible in the course of investigations concerning these creatures. Thus we see, at almost every angle, the little flying mammal exhibiting its nobility, and, in this instance, pointing out to us one of Nature's secrets, the disclosure of which, perhaps, will result in untold benefit to mankind.

The introduction of the study on Dragon Flies and the reason therefor are explained in the work itself.

The motive in adding the work on smallpox and bedbugs will be explained in the foreword thereto, written by the eminent American consulting engineer, Dr. J. A. L. Waddell, whom the author has known for many years, and whose wonderful personality he enjoys the honor and privilege of addressing in correspondence as "My esteemed friend."