INSECT FAUNA OF HUMAN EXCREMENT 545 



Before stating the results and before generalizing upon them 

 it should be stated that owing to the prevalence of typhoid in 

 the army during the summer of 1898, already referred to, an 

 army typhoid commission was appointed in August of that year, 

 at the request of the Surgeon-General, consisting of Drs. 

 Walter Reed, U. S. A., Victor M. Vaughan, U. S. V., and 

 E. O. Shakespeare, U. S. V. Several times after the work of 

 the commission was well advanced newspaper items appeared 

 in various papers stating that its members had been convinced 

 of the important agency of flies in the transmission of the dis- 

 ease. Its report has not yet been published, but one of the 

 members of the commission, Dr. Vaughan, read a paper be- 

 fore the annual meeting of the American Medical Association 

 at Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 6, 1900, which in addition 

 to being one of the most important contributions to the study of 

 enteric fevers published of late years, gives forcibly the views 

 of at least one member of the commission on the fly question. 



Dr. Vaughan's paper was entitled ' Conclusions Reached after 

 a Study of Typhoid Fever among American Soldiers in 1898,' 

 and comprised 53 categorical conclusions. The one relating to 

 flies was as follows : 



** -?/. Flies undoubtedly served as carriers of the infection, 



*' My reasons for believing that flies were active in the dis- 

 semination of typhoid may be stated as follows : 



" a. Flies swarmed over infected fecal 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. 



" h. 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 disab- 

 ling of the fly. 



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

 ways. In the first place fecal matter containing the typhoid 



