(FORTUNE Magazine) – In which Kindly Dr. Keeping Up, still gamely trying to figure out the point of the endangered-species laws, plunges boldly into Cicero Swamp in upstate New York for a closeup look at midsummer madness. Dear Dr. Up: One posits that the plunge was metaphorical only, since the Onondaga County wetlands in question are known to harbor species that the average kindly analyst would not care to get cozy with, including the endangered but not undangerous Massasauga rattlesnake. For the record, the Massasauga holds no terrors for yours truly, as his copy of The Reptiles of North America plainly states that this rattler causes death in Homo sapiens only when it bites extra hard (''both fangs thoroughly perforating the flesh''), and we would definitely have made the scene in Cicero Swamp if only Brooks Brothers carried our size in wading boots. Dear Doc: But how does the aforesaid 26-inch slitherer fit into the diatribe against endangered-speciesism that wide-awake readers expect in five lines or ten max? It could take longer, as we need to first dwell unpleasantly on eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a mosquito-borne virus dangerous to horses and also people, the symptoms including high fevers, neuralgia, swelling of the brain, comas, and, about 80% of the time, departure for heaven. EEE has resulted in fatalities up and down the East Coast for the past 60 years or so, and the accepted way to combat it is to spray the swamps for mosquitoes, given certain weather patterns. Dear Kindly: This item could be in big trouble if it does not turn out that endangered-species theorists and activists babbling about wetland ecosystems resisted the indicated spraying in Cicero Swamp for fear of inconveniencing the guys with the fangs. Luckily for the item, if not Onondaga County, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has forbidden spraying in those parts of the swamp believed to be heavily populated by the Massasaugas, even though Mario Cuomo's minions nowhere contend that these protected areas are any more mosquito-free than other Ciceronian sites. Dear Upkeep: So the midsummer madness above advertised concerned only the state, leaving no starring roles for private-sector friends of the rattlesnakes? Surely you jest. Prominently bleeding onstage for the rattlers was the Earth First! movement, which demands an exclamation point after its name, possibly to remind you of its generic extremism in boosting the environment while spiking trees in order to forestall corporate greed or something. As exclusively quoted in the Syracuse Herald-Journal, the guy from Earth First! said any spraying at all in the swamp would upset its delicate ecosystem. Dear Doc: So what finally happened? Socko ending: In September, New York State health officials suddenly declared a health emergency after the discovery in Cicero Swamp of human- biting mosquitoes bearing the EEE virus. At summer's end, the county was frantically spraying the whole swamp and a nearby town. Dear Up: And this sequence caused the speciesists to express remorse for prior obstinacy and chronic poor judgment? There you go jesting again.