amount of meats and the like which she eats and by substituting cereals and fruits, by drinking plenty of water and by taking exercise, the mother can decrease the richness of her milk.

At the same time, the diet of the mother should not be too rigorously prescribed. If the diet she eats disagrees with her, it may generally be modified or changed in some essential respects by her physician without materially injuring the child. No mother, however, should hazard such changes in diet without the advice of her physician.

The use of any drugs by the mother should also be carefully watched. As many drugs which are helpful to the sick mother will affect her milk and may injure the child, it follows that the advice of the physician in such matters should always be asked by the mother before she takes any medicine.

In like manner, the nursing mother should be extremely careful to avoid unusual excitement, fright, grief, anger and sudden passion. These emotions frequently have a serious influence upon the mother's milk and often produce untoward effects on the child It is not less important for the mother to avoid great fatigue and exhaustion. Some young mothers, in their desire for recreation, have the habit of leaving their children and of going off for long, exhausting rides or drives, returning just in time to nurse their babies. This practice can not be too strongly condemned: it often modifies the character of the mother's milk and, in consequence, makes the child ill.

If these precautions seem onerous, the mother should remember that they may mean the life of her child. It is far better to take all necessary precautions and keep the child well than to be careless. or reckless and cause illness or death to the child.

SAVE THE BABIES!

DEPARTMENT

HEALTH

VOL. I.

JULY, 1909

BULLETIN

Insect Carriers of Disease

MOSQUITOES and FLIES

They spread the germs of many diseases; they are a menace to the health of the people of Virginia; they may be exterminated by simple and practicable measures.

THIS BULLETIN TELLS HOW.

No. 13.

Entered as second-class matter July 28, 1908, at the post-office at Richmond,

Virginia, under the Act of July 16, 1894.

.Norfolk.

CHAS. R. GRANDY, M. D.......

Second Congressional District.

GEO. BEN JOHNSTON, M. D.; STUART MCGUIRE, M. D.

City of Richmond.

Only within the last few years have we come to realize that many of the most common insects of the world play a vital part in the spread of diseases with which we are afflicted. Mosquitoes, for . example, known for centuries, were long thought to be merely a nuisance. Of late years, however, scientists have discovered that two of the most important diseases of the South, Malaria and Yellow Fever, are spread by mosquitoes and by mosquitoes only. The fight against these diseases is therefore a fight, first and always, against the mosquitoes.

In the same manner, the fly has become recognized as something more than a nuisance. Indeed so much disease is spread by him, and he plays such an important part in the health problem of the country that he has been dubbed the "most deadly animal alive." Even the flea is now reckoned as among the enemies of good health, . for in plague-stricken districts he has been discovered to be a most ready carrier of that disease.

Since these insects play such an important part in the health of the country, their life-habits and characteristics should be familiar to all. Only by a knowledge of their habits and of the methods by which they spread disease can they be intelligently combatted.

MOSQUITOES.

More than 200 species of mosquitoes are known to exist in the world, and most of these are represented in the United States. They are found in all climates, from the Arctic to the Equator, and few communities are free of them. Fortunately, most of the forms exist in small number, or are met with in limited areas only. The number of varieties found in practical work is not large.