Although a splendid antiseptic, copper in weak solution is not harmful, no more so than the old copper utensils used by our forefathers were harmful. Undoubtedly they were of benefit, and the use of them prevented the growth of typhoid and other bacteria. People of to-day might well go back to copper receptacles for drinking water.
[1] For published reports of the work, see Bulletins 64 and 76, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture; reports prepared by Dr. George T. Moore and his assistant, Mr. Karl F. Kellerman.
Because of the serious and often fatal injury it inflicts on man, the most dangerous animal known is the mosquito. Compared with the evil done by the insect pest, the cobra's death toll is small. This venomous serpent is found only in hot countries, particularly in India, while mosquitoes know no favorite land or clime--unless it be Jersey. Arctic explorers complain of them. In Alaska, it is recorded by a scientist that "mosquitoes existed in countless millions, driving us to the verge of suicide or insanity." A traveler on the north shore of Lake Superior, when the snow was several feet deep, and the ice on the lake five feet in thickness, relates that "mosquitoes appeared in swarms, literally blackening the banks of snow in sheltered places."
_Mosquitoes Responsible for Yellow Fever_
In the temperate zone this evil-breeding insect was, until recent years, considered more in the light of an exasperating pest. It is now known, however, that malaria is due entirely to the bites of mosquitoes. But it is in the tropical countries that their deadliest work is done. There, it has been proved beyond question, the mosquitoes are responsible for the carriage of yellow fever. If, in a yellow-fever ridden region, one were to live entirely in an inclosure, carefully protected with proper screens--as certain entomologists did--there practically would be no danger from the dread disease, even if all other precautions were neglected.
The crime committed by the mosquito against its innocent victim, man, is more in the nature of manslaughter than of murder, according to the authorities. There is no _premeditated malice_. "A mosquito bites primarily to obtain food," says a leading entomologist; "there is neither malice nor venom in the intent, whatever there may be in the act." There isn't great comfort in the intelligence conveyed by the scientist, nor in his further observation: