86 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



American Medical Association, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 6, 

 1900, a paper entitled " Conclusions Reached After a Study of Typhoid 

 Fever Among American Soldiers in 1898." This paper, which is one of 

 the most important contributions to the study of enteric fevers published, 

 comprises 53 categorical conclusions. The one relating to flies is as 

 follows : 



" 27. Flies undoubtedly served as carriers of the infection. 



" My reasons for believing that flies were active in the dissemination 

 of typhoid may be stated as follows : 



" a. Flies swarmed over infected faecal matter in the pits and then 

 visited and fed upon the food prepared for the soldiers at the mess tents. 

 In some instances, where lime had recently been sprinkled over the 

 contents of the pits, flies with their feet whitened with lime were seen 

 walking over the food. 



u b. Officers whose mess tents were protected by means of screens, 

 suffered proportionately less from typhoid fever than did those whose 

 tents were not so protected. 



" c. Typhoid fever gradually disappeared in the fall of 1898, with the 

 approach of cold weather and the consequent disabling of the fly. 



" It is possible for the fly to carry the typhoid bacillus in two ways. 

 In the first place, frecal matter containing the typhoid germ may adhere to 

 the fly and be mechanically transported. In the second place, it is 

 possible that the typhoid bacillus may be carried in the digestive organs 

 of the fly and may be deposited with its excrement." 



The miasmatic theory of the origin of typhoid fever was not supported 

 by the investigations of the Commission, and it was found that infected 

 water was not an important factor in the spread of typhoid in the national 

 encampments of 1898. The conclusion was reached that the fever is 

 disseminated by the transference of the excretions of an infected 

 individual to the alimentary canals of others, and that a man infected 

 with typhoid fever may scatter the infection in every latrine, or regiment, 

 before the disease is recognized in himself, while germs may be found in 

 the excrement for a long time after the apparent complete recovery of the 

 patient. The remarkable statement is made that in the encampments of 

 1898 about one-fifth of the soldiers developed typhoid, and that more 

 than 80 per cent, of the total deaths were caused by this fever. 



In all medical and newspaper literature on this subject the expression 

 used in connection with insects has been simply " flies." It occurred to 



