QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 443 



irritated victim. Sometimes the alimentary canal of the flea 

 becomes completely blocked by a mass of Bacillus pestis, and 

 then, when the flea tries to suck, a churning action takes place, 

 and some of the bacilli are regurgitated, and pass into the wound. 



Typhus fever and " trench fever " are diseases that are trans- 

 mitted by lice. It was typhus from which the Serbian Army 

 suffered so severely. These diseases are probably transmitted 

 by inoculation from the excreta. The bed-bug is a possible carrier 

 of typhus, and an Indian bed-bug is responsible for spreading the 

 disease known as Oriental sore. 



The so-called harvest-mite, by burrowing under the skin, 

 causes, in some cases, such intense irritation that a certain amount 

 of fever results. Ticks convey various diseases of both man and 

 animals from infected to healthy subjects. When a tick is tuU- 

 fed it falls to the ground from the animal on which it has been 

 feeding, and rests until it requires another meal, when it climbs 

 on to another animal and feeds again. If the first animal should 

 be diseased the second may possibly become infected. 



The President emphasised the importance of studying the 

 habits of a disease-carrying insect before fighting it. 



The Secretary read the following note from Colonel Clibborn, 

 who w^as unavoidably absent from the meeting : 



That immunity to the results of malarial infection may be 

 acquired naturally appears to be demonstrated in the case of the 

 Tarus — inhabitants of the Tarai tract in North- West India. 



The Tarai is a belt of clay soil deposited as the result of the 

 denudation of the mountain slopes. It has a high spring level , 

 is covered in large part by forests, stretches of high grass and 

 swamps. It is flooded in many places during the wet season, 

 and, as may be imagined, has an abundant and varied supply 

 of animal, plant and insect life. It is the paradise of the sportsman 

 and a fruitful field for the naturalist, who can, however, only 

 visit it with a due regard to health during the cold weather, or 

 for short periods in the early part of the hot season. The climate 

 is considered deadly in the latter part of the rains and while the 

 flooded areas are drying up. 



The Tarus are indigenous inhabitants of the Tarai — live in 

 their villages there all the year round, and do not suffer to any 

 marked extent from ill effects due to the climate. They are 

 great sportsmen — eat fish, meat whenever they can get it, 



