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Show j .SAM ANTONIO BAT ROOST I Malaria Has I Been Nearly I ; Eliminated in San I Antonio, Texas, by I j Building of Homes for li the Former "Bird of I; 111 Omen." I I I BIRD of ill-omen H ' v Thus was classed tho bit H A by Pliny and other anclcut H natuiallsts, and If one were H tj to Judge lj appearances H onlj ho might agree with H & these wise men But the 9 ! - i world has turned several H -j v- 7 s trncs since tho dajs of H - L .Pllnj, and whllo one maj M y ndmlro him and his works Btlll, In tho light of H events that have transpired stneo then, ono must agrcc that there were lots of things Pliny H 5 had to learn 0n0 can but regret that he didn't Ho longer, H ; even until tho present daw Tho world might H havo been better with more men of the Plin" H tjpe. and ho would hao made his mark U H pome way or other In the twentieth centun H i1 1 hero were many things he didn't know, but lie M would have learned : let, It has taken the woild a long time to 1' appreciate the bat. In tho first place, its vcrj nppoarancc is against It It is ono of tho most horrible-looking creatures imaginable It v ould appear to be a cross between a bird and a J mouse. A creature of tho night, looking llko M 1 uorno mojister on a diminutive scale, v lth its 'i honlble snapping mouth, Its furred body and M , tho wings, or membrane, which connects Us B 1 clawed limbs, it znoro than any other creaturo M t resembles thoso pictures of faatan, in which the king of hades is represented with a pair of M gigantic membrano wings It stands out alone H ( in zoology. M f It lnspirca moro terror than tho snake. Thero H ' Is something moro mjstcrlous, more terrifying, about it than about the snake. Tho snako is .1 I creaturo of tho dajtlmc and It makes lis wa H . noiselessly about, which is ono of tho most rc- H i pulslvo features m x man with rubber heels, coming up behind fl jou on a dark night, or even In dajtlmc. ,ln- Eplres a sort of surprised leiror. Well, that Is Hl? how tho snako acts on most people It novor HR$o! Jmakcs a noise, unless it should tako a fancy to l2' hiss, as some species do when aroused, or mcr- SH 'L rlly shako Us rattles, as the rattlesnako his a B ,, habit of doing, and It Is tills nolaclcssness H , which inspires tho feeling- against tho snake HH ',, As a matter of fact tho snake, as a rule, la H ' a ory harmless animal. Thero are some which SJH f might bito ou occasionally, but tho acrago H 1 enako. tho black or other field snakes, merely gfl feeds on insects which destroy crops And this fl Is someUiing which humaultv has learned since 3H Ujo days of Pliny. Of course ono cannot say H 1 a good word for tho rattlesnake, tho copperhead, H Ul0 poisonous moccasin, tho boa constrictor and 9 f tho poisonous snakes of India, but tho non- B polbonous snako in a very wcll-boha ed creature. M 'I rlthough it causes, tho same shuddora to shaVo S t the human frame us would a poisonous snako H ( when tho human uno-cpcctcdly encounters one WM of them 9 Pliny and his contemporaries clisscd tho ba. V ' as i bird, whllo zoologists of a latoi day sa Wm it Is not a olrd but a mammal It la not a bird. 9 ' because no conventional bird will suckle Its , i ountr Tho hat suckles Its young. , '"M True It does fly. and nothing but a bird or , M insect 'has a right to fly. And hero again tho . St bat although now classed as an animal, re- , fuses to conform to comcntlonal standards, and ; imm Insists on flying. M Thon concerning tho 'ill-omen" part of tho ' Wt bat's reputation: It is a far way from Pllnj s 9m day to tho llrst decado of the twentieth ccn-4PA ccn-4PA vary but it has taken all that Umo, and it is )IB quite a considerable amount of time whon ono counts up. for tho scientists of today to dls--M cover that tbo bat is a benefactor of tho hunt hu-nt man race. v W DR.CLES A. (2. CAMPBELL It w is gcnerall known tliat tho bat lived irlnclpally on Injects, although occasionally mo heirs of tho vampire, which Is supposed to uck tho blood of sleeping humans Tho prev-ilenco prev-ilenco of tho vamplro drama and the amplre novlo and tho arlous amplro stars has done lothlng to add to the popularity of tho mytho-ogical mytho-ogical vamplro bat. As a matter of fact there nay bo cases whoro a bat has sucked tho blood )f some animals, but there aro few of the read-:rs read-:rs of this article who can point out any spcclllc Instance whero some friend or rclatlvo fell s victim of a vampire of tho flying kind Thero aro bats and bats. They are everywhere, every-where, scattered all oor tho world. Tho king bat of all makes Its habitat on th Island of Java and specimens 5 feet from t p to tip hao been caught there. But tho ordinary ordi-nary bat Is a gentle creature. Apparcntl they are attracted by tho light for those who hao lived In tho countrj can recall instunccs when on some summer nlgh-a nlgh-a bat would suddcnl appear In tho house and fly around and around, while all the brooms In tho houso wero requisitioned In the attempt to chaso It out the open doors or windows, or sweep It down from tho top of tho room And It generally took considerable tlmo and skill before the intruder wns swept out Sometimes, Some-times, when struck by a broom, the bat would oart down and perhaps become entangled In tho hair of noma member of tho household In iccont j cars there havo been several cases of record whero tho skins of bats woro used In tho manufacture of women's cloaks and coats, and their beautiful, soft, furn skin makes as atti active a garment as does tho skin of tho mole. But it remained for a phjslclan of San Antonio, An-tonio, Tox , Dr Charles A. R Campbell, to demonstrate th it tho bat is a guardian of the health of humanity It took tho phjslclan a good many cars to perou ulo tho ordinary run of humanity to regard tho bat as ho docs, but ho Anally succeeded In San Antonio Ah a result the city has a municipal bat roost, whore tho bats may dwell in an Ideal existence where thoy will not bo disturbed by other creatures, human or animal Also, tho city has passed an ordlnanco making it a misdemeanor misde-meanor for any person to willfully or maliciously malicious-ly kill a bat Why? Because tho bat prcjs principally on mosquitoes, and because mosquitoes aro bearers bear-ers of dlscaso gorms, with which thoy Inoculate Inocu-late human beings In Snn Antonio tho mosquitoes mos-quitoes boar malaria germs, and it Is on this i account that tho city decided to follow Dr. Campbell's ndvlec and protect tho bats i But before that scientists tho world over were i deeply Interested In Dr. Campboll'a thoorj eon-. eon-. corning tho earning of malaria germs b mos-) mos-) quitocs. I It was tho discovery that mosquitoes carried . tho germs of vollow fever which paved thu wa for tho practical elimination of yellow fovcr in i somo of our Southern cities and In numerous tropical seaports Since then thero has been - no yellow fover in Now OrleanB, which frequently fre-quently suffered from scourges of this disease 9 When It was learned that it was the mosquito which earned j cllow fover and was responsible responsi-ble for the opldemics, war was doclarcd on tho motqulto, and sinco then tho city has boon free of tho disease. Tho sam way In Havana Colon. Panama City and other tropical ports. Now, Dr. Campbell has long held that tho gorms of malaria wore carried bv mosquitoes which Inocul ited humans Exterminate the mosquitoes, thoteforc, appeared to bo tho rem-cdj rem-cdj for malaria. Swamps and ponds may be drained and a caroful watch kept for tho mo-qultocs, mo-qultocs, but It Is going to breed and oxlst on tho smallest possible excuso It will thrlvo In a tin can which Is thrown out in a lot and In which a few drops of rainwater mav collect. In vacant city lota, where tho weeds grow high, and whoro tho sun seldom touches tho ground becaubo oi tho luxuriant growth of woods, tho mosquito finds a paradise Hence Dr Campbell decided that the protection protec-tion of tho bat would be tho best wa to exterminate ex-terminate tho mosquito It also would provo a much moro lnoxponsivo and certain means than drainage or pouring oil on the surface of ponds and other pools of stagnant water. The bat Is a nocturnal animal, and feeds on InooctB The mosquito Is a nocturnal insect Tho bat goes forth at night to feed, and tho most plentiful thing It finds m some localities la tho mosquito. Nothing moro natural thon than for tho bat to feed on tho mosquito. And It docs It is tho greatest natural proy tho bat has Tho bat seeks dark, qulot, lonely places for Its residence. Tho dark attio of some country houso, tho cracks and crovlces of a deserted building offer an ideal place for It to sleep during tho dav : and it sleeps by hanging by Its claws, head downward, from somo beam or rafter. In warm climates It is at work day and night. In colder climates It hibernates and hangs head down all winter from its roosting place Cracks and crovlces In caves aro favorlto places of hibernation, and some tlmo tho adventurcsomo counto youth, entering a cavo with a lamp or candlo. ma awaken hundreds of tho creatures that Immediately begin swarming about tho light. Dr. Mitchell is a practicing phjslclan. and Is attached to tho Health Department of tho City of San Antonio. Certain sections about San Antonio, and In particular at Lake Mitchell, were formerly almost uninhabitable on account of tho prevalence of malaria. Sclentltlc re- BATROOST,AT.,UKgj ' M .MITCHELL -j ,fl Improvements in building his second bat roost, B solved tho problem. Ono was that bats havo a (B&r wonderful sonbo of smell and locate their habl- 111 tatlons much bj' this Tho other te that tho ear tfiK of tho bat is so constructed that any loud nolaa Wfi Is annoj lng to it. jH When Dr Campbell built his second bat roost l at Lake Mitchell he made- somo changes In tho M I interior construction and then placed In It a 'JM quantity of guano and also sprajed tho struc- JB l turo with a mlxturo that gave off tho odor of jj H guano The result was that the bats began to jjH uso tho structure almost at once. iH Houses around Lako Mitchell wero so much H infested with bats that ono or twoof them I v cro almost unlnhabitablo and efforts wero j jI I being made to kill them ofT. Such houses wero i j ' practically freo from malaria. In order to got J gj them to tako to the bat roost, the doctor pro- g cured a phonograph with a loud-sounding diso ! R and placed a man in charge, with instructions B to begin plajlng it earlj in the morning about U H tho tlmo tho bats were due to return to their , & roosts Tho results were magical, as tho bats 1 W refused to enter the houso, and this drovo them J5 to the bat roosV I WM Now. tho doctor has the bats In xno roost Wm ---vTy ill ;MI R m r Mft I 1 lid MOSGuUITO BREEDING PLACES' ,A tf &Mili& f. H - MI . II INTEGIORF aSLteLg j BAT ROOST " ill search proved bejond a doubt that mosquitoes wcio responsible for this In this Lako Mitchell district even animals became affected with malaria and died of It Whon Dr Cunpbell began his rescaichcs ho found that out of elghtj -seven persons living In tho vicinity of tho like, sevonty-cight wero afflicted with malaria ma-laria Tho lako Is used as a disposal placo for tho cltj'o sowago How to do away with tho malaria was Dr. Campbell's problem Ho tackled It. and It took him something llko fourteen jcars and about $10,000 of his own money to do It. That he has solved tho problem Is proven bj auldaylts from poisons living about LaKe Mitchell, which show that before ho hit upon tho bat theory malaria was a continual scourge, whllo now It has practically disappeared H reasoned that tho waj to get rid of malaria was to get rid of tho mosquito This could bo dono by drainage and tho uso of oil on tho wator. but these wore expensive methods and required a continual outlay. What ho wanted was a method effective, inexpenslvo and pormanent Continued study of tho subject lod him to bellovo that tho propagation of bats would solve tho pioblcm at practically no cx-ponso cx-ponso and possibly at a profit. Dr. Campbell started out to And somo artificial artifi-cial habitation which would provo equally aa attractive as tho natural bat roosts Ills first effort was a flat failuro and tho structure still stands without having attracted a single bat Ernest Thompson Soton, tho distinguished naturalist, nat-uralist, heard of Dr. Campbell's experiments and built a place to attract bats on his property In Connecticut, but It mot with Just as great failure. Then Dr, Campbell hit upon two Important facts regarding bats, which, along with some closo to tho lake, whoro they catch the mos- J plfl quitocs before they havo had a chance to do j MM any damage Ho estimates that few of tho j ,1 mosquitoes now over become infected with ( I 1 malaria, as, In order to do this, a human bclpg with tho dlscaso must bo bitten and a period j of seven dajs allowed for incubation insido tha II i mobqulto bofore tho latter Is capable of lnocu- II j lallng another porton. Owing to tho superloi i ( ndv mtages tho bat roost offers for propuga- W i Hon and tho preservation of the bats from their 1 , natural enemies by it, tho colony at Laka 1 Mitchell has increased so'r.ipidlv that tho mos- 1! qultoos now aro killed beforo thoy get a chanca I! to cause Infection ffij ; Dr. Campbell's experiment was so successful ji j that, with tho backing of tho Bexar County Medical Societj', San Antonio was induced to fflj build a bat roost in a thlcklj populated part of jfflj the city, whero tho conditions aro favorablo to i : malaria. Whllo tho roost Is as jet new and 1 has but a comparatively small colony of bats, M S malaria In that district Is on tho decrease Tha jli Si city has also passed an ordinance prohibiting J "j tho killing of bats, and a stato law to that j( yJ oftect was favorably recommended at tho last 1 31 session of tho Legislature, but failed to coma IJ 1 up beforo adjournment. ( raj As malaria is one of tho most prevalent dls- Jjl t cases in tho countrj, and is tho causo of the II j loss of millions of dollars annuallj, as well as I Jj manj Uvea, malaria not onlj causing death of 0 1 ' (m itself, but being an Indirect cause of consump- i' M tlon. Dr. Campbell figures his discoveries of 1 1 Immense value I M Bats aro found practically all over tho world. I H By attracting thorn bj building bat roosts, ma- I' H larla can bo eliminated at small first cost, with I ) IH ulllmato prollt, as tho guano, which is collected, I H Is a high-priced fertilizer, I H Jjfl jjfmMmmm |