Olden Edenton Keeps Big Company These Days. . . Noted Officials from Many Lands Observe Investigations of the Mosquito
By D. V. Meekins
A thick-set, dark, complected stranger stood before the desk in the Bay View hotel in Edenton. He was penning his name on the register. The pen sputtered as he wrote down the heavy black letters. Tom Joes, proprietor of the hotel, watched the wring.
“M-i-l-i-t-c-h-e-v-i-t-c-h,” spelled Mr. Jones after the stranger. Mr. Jones frowned. He always like to say Mr. ----- to his guests, give them a hearty handshake and expatiate on the glories of Edenton, while the bell hop prepares to do his stuff. But this time he was stumped.
A chewing gum salesman observed Mr. Jones’ knitted brow, edged over to the desk to offer help and looked over the stranger’s shoulder at the name, “Militchevich.”
The salesman frowned, gave Mr. Jones a wink, and said:
“Must be one of the Boshevickeys; I think I’d keep my eye on that fellow.”
“Shsh,” said Mr. Jones, and frowned back at the chewing gum salesman. “Here boy, show this gentleman to the corner room on the third floor, the one overlooking the bay.”
When the stranger had trudged upstairs, Mr. Jones turned to the group that had gathered to look the stranger over.
“Boys, that fellow has come all the way from central Europe to visit Edenton,” said the proprietor of the Bay View.
“He certainly must like to visit historical places,” said one of the bystanders.
“It isn’t Edenton’s history that brought him here; he doesn’t know Edenton has a history. That man is Mr. M. A. Militchevich, and he’s the National Sanitary Engineer of the country of Yugoslavia. He came to Edenton to look at our mosquitoes.”
Eyes of Scientific World on Edenton
So Edenton, the ancient capital of North Carolina, is having distinguished company these days. For six months in ones and twos and threes, some of the world’s most noted physicians and scientists have come to visit Edenton, and have become acquainted with and highly pleased with the hospitality of that historic old town. First there came Mr. E. Fueugo, director of Malarial work on the coast of Spain; then Miss Dorothy Beck of the State Medical Board of California; then Dr. Militchevitch of Yugoslavia. And among others have been Dr. Ivan Kessiakoff, Director of Public Health Work in Bulgaria; Dr. Ivan Golosmonoff, also of Bulgaria; Dr. Michael Ciuca, a Romanian Professor of Hygiene; Dr. Constanine Popp, director of Hygiene and Medicine of Bucharest, Romania; Dr. Eric Kelaart and Dr. A. Gilles of the Public Health Administration of Ceylon, India; Dr. P. Marginesin, specialist in Malaria in the Public Health Administration of Italy; and Dr. Antonio Veedol, another public health official, of British Honduras.
These and other noted men from many foreign countries have come, and more are coming, and will continue to come for the next three years. But these are not all. Other visitors to Edenton in the past six months have included Dr. Fredrick F. Russell, General Director of the Health Board; Dr. John A. Ferrell, Director for the United States; Dr. Victor G. Heiser, Director for the East; Dr. W. A. Sawyer Director of Public Health; Dr. H.H. Howard, Director for the West Indies; and many others, all officials of the International Health Board, an organization for Public Health Research, financed and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation of New York City.
And All About Mosquitoes
These men have come to Edenton to learn from the investigations that are being conducted at that city by the Rockefeller Foundation, where an extensive study of the mosquito and its habits is being conducted by a corps of 10 people, under the direction of Dr. Mark F. Boyd. Dr. Boyd is a frank and likeable young man who has been with the Rockefeller Foundation six years, serving recently in Brazil. He is a native of Minnesota. The Rockefeller group came to Edenton in March at the invitation of the North Carolina State Board of Health, and for more than three years they will maintain their headquarters for research in malaria and mosquitoes, sending their men out into the surrounding counties to gather eggs, larvae, and young mosquitoes, keep them at headquarters at Edenton, and study their habits under the microscope in their native haunts.
While Northeastern North Carolinians are spending money with Mr. Rockefeller for gas to ride over the good roads of the state, Mr. Rockefeller is sending some of his money back to North Caroilina. Judging from published reports of the work done in other states, the Rockefeller Foundation will spend more than $16,000 on malarial research in the Edenton section.
Why Edenton Was Selected
Dr. Mark F. Boyd, director of the investigation at Edenton, says Edenton was selected for headquarters for the work because of its convenient central location. It affords easy access to many points infested with mosquitoes. From Edenton, Dr. Boyd’s workers go forth to the pools and swamps of Chowan, Perquimans, Bertie, Washington, and Tyrrell Counties, gathering eggs and mosquitoes to be brought back to the laboratory in the old Chowanoke Club quarters.
Dr. Boyd showed the reporter around the laboratory. At long tables, men sat with their eyes fixed to microscopes, examining mosquitoes in all states. In glass tanks and in bottles were different species of the pests. A clerical force was busy classifying and card indexing the findings of the scientists. In a screened-in cage, hundreds of mosquitoes were imprisoned.
Ther is much about the mosquito to be learned: much that would confuse the laymen. Be it known that mosquitoes are said to become infected with malaria from persons afflicted with it, and to carry the disease to others. But there is only one variety of mosquito that carries malaria, and the malaria-carrying mosquito is known as Anopheles. Other species of mosquitoes are considered more annoying than dangerous.
. . . . To read the rest of this article, go to newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83025812/1926-09-10/ed-1/seq-2/
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Sept. 10, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83025812/1926-09-10/ed-1/seq-1/
