Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — A Mosquito Remedy. [ARTICLE]

A Mosquito Remedy.

Ttoft position of this section of the country is such writes, a correspondent from Bangkok, Siam, that we cannot procure conveniently pure drinking

water unless we collect the rain water la vessels during the rainy season, and that of sufficient quantity to last over to the next year. Ordinarily the rain water is kept in unglazed earthen jars of about twenty-five or thirty gallons each. To prevent the mosquitoes from depositing eggs in the water, an iron nail is placed in each jar. For the first few days this will not prevent them, but after that time there will be no more mosquitoes or larvie in the jars. To remedy this evil from the start, I heated the nails red hot, so as to produce oxide scales on the nails £t once. A year ago I placed in every jar of rain water a couple of five inch wrought iron nails heated red hot. Several jars are now left over from them, and the water in them is as pure and free from mosquito larvte as any one can wish. The process described as above is not universally practiced now, but many years ago the ancient people did so during cholera time and cases of prevalent sickness, believing in the mysterious virtue of the iron nails to prevent harm and the mosquito larvte from being in the drinking water. —[Scientific American.