176 Obituary 



flea, thereby blocking the passage of the alimentary canal. Further 

 efiforts made by the insect at sucking only result in blood being imbibed 

 as far as the oesophagus, and a certain amount of the blood which is 

 taken in flows back into the puncture. kSincc this blood is freely con- 

 taminated with plague bacilli an uninfected host is rendered liable in 

 this way to contract the disease. In 1914 Bacot went out to W. Africa 

 as a member of a Yellow Fever Commission instituted by the Colonial 

 Office. While on this work he made a number of observations on the 

 bionomics of the mosquito Stegomyia fasciata, which is the intermediary 

 host of the disease in question. During the period of the War, Bacot 

 was mainly engaged in investigating the body louse and its relation to 

 trench fever. After the conclusion of hostilities he turned his attention 

 to the role which that same insect performs in the transmission of typhus 

 fever from man to man. In this capacity he did useful work in Poland. 

 Armed with the experience thus gained, he proceeded along with his 

 colleague Arkwright to Cairo, early in the present 3^ear, and there 

 continued t.o worl- of .,0,^^.^.^^-. .x' ^'- 



... v^x uixv. ^iiuuiiioiogicai oocieiy ot Liondon 



in 1907, and probably many entomologists recall his last attendance at 

 a meeting, towards the end of last year, when he exhibited micro- 

 photographs of the eggs of the European and oriental species of an 

 insect also concerned with the transmission of disease. 



A. D. IMMS. 



