342 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



that the best-known insect-bonie diseases; the constant as- 

 sociation of the disease with Simidium-mfested streams ; the 

 absence of any other arthropod with similar distribution that 

 might account for it; the striking correlation between the fly 

 and the disease in wide geographical distribution, peculiar 

 topographical exigencies, are all facts which strongly point to 

 Simidium as the necessary carriers of pellagra."-' 



Further elucidation of this theory is reviewed by Prof. 

 S. J. Hunter in a paper. The Sand Fly and Pellagra, presented 

 before the Entomological Branch of the American Association 

 for Advancement of Science, Washington, D. C, December 27, 

 1911, and published in The -Journal of the American Medical 

 Association, February 24, 1912, vol. 8, pp. 547-548. A part of 

 this review is as follows : 



"A. The endemic centers of pellagra in Italy have remained the same 

 since the disease was first described." 



"B. The season of the recurrence of pellagra coincides with the sea- 

 son of the appearance of the full-fledged sand fly, even to the extent that 

 if the spring is early or late, the sand fly is early or late in appearing, 

 and pellagra cases are correspondingly early or late in their ap- 

 pearance." 



"C. In centers of pellagra infection whole families are attacked at 

 limes simultaneously." 



"D. In nonpellagrous districts the disease never spreads to other.*; 

 with the advent of a pellagrin from a pellagrous district." 



"E. In the case of a family which has removed from a pellagrous to 

 a nonpellagrous district, the children born in the former district are 

 pellagrins, while the children born subsequent to removal to a non- 

 pellagrous district do not develop the disease." 



"F. The disease is not hereditary, although infants a few months 

 old may become infected, especially if taken to the fields in pellagrous 

 districts, where their mothers work during the season when sand flies 

 are in evidence." 



"G. Pellagra is not contagious, but is transmitted to each individual 

 by an infected sand fly." 



Doctor Sambon found three species of Simulhim in Italy, 

 S. reptmift, S. ornatum, and S. piibescens, chiefly the last. In 

 the United States S. reptans has not been discovered, but the 

 Kansas State Board of Health, through the State University 

 and its department of entomology, has carried on investi- 

 gations as to the presence of Sitnulhim flies in localities where 

 pellagrins live, and with the most common species, S. vittatum, 



5. L. W. Sambon (.Joiirn. Trop. Meil. and Hys., London, 13, 1910, Nos. 18, pp. 271- 

 282, 19, pp. 287-300; 20. pp. SO.-i^lS; 21, pp. 319-321). Progress report of the investiga- 

 tion of pellagra, as given in U. S. Dept. Agri. Experiment Station Record, vol. 2G, 

 abstract No. 8. 



