52 



An account of the characters of the family and a description of A.ferru- 

 ginea are given. According to Briinetti, this species requires from 

 12 to 15 days for the first generation to emerge. Pupation takes place 

 from 5 to 8 days after oviposition, and the emergence of adults occurs 

 7 days later. A.ferruginea is the commonest of the small flies breeding 

 in human faeces. The minute size of the flies enables them to pass 

 through ordinary fly-proof screens used against the house-fly and 

 other large Diptera. The results obtained in the experiments afford 

 evidence that this insect is a possible carrier of Asiatic cholera, and 

 by analogy, other alimentary infections, such as typhoid fever, bacillary 

 dysentery, and infantile diarrhoea, may be transmitted, either through 

 the ingestion of food contaminated by organisms from the surface of 

 the fly's body or faeces, or by ingestion of the entire fly which may 

 have become mixed up with the food. Fly-proof sanitary pails which 

 are proof against the common house-fly may not be secure against 

 invasion by Phoridae, The fact that cholera vibrios may be 

 transmitted from larvae, through pupae, into adults is important 

 only under exceptional circumstances. In the Philippine Islands, 

 where there are many questions unsolved in the epidemiology of 

 Asiatic cholera, the Phoeidae are worthy of serious consideration. 



ScHUFFNER (W.). Pseudotyphoid Fever in Deli, Sumatra (a variety of 

 Japanese Kedani Fever). — Philippine Jl. Sci., Manila, x Sec. B., 

 no. 5, September 1915. pp. 345-353, 3 plates, 3 tables. [Received 

 27th January 1916.] 



Kedani fever appears in Japan at certain times of the year which 

 are determined by periodical floods. In Sumatra no such regularity 

 can be observed. The disease occurs most frequently from June to 

 August and from November to January ; the former period is dry, 

 the latter has the greatest rainfall. The mortality due to the disease 

 differs in the two countries ; in Japan, it is on an average 30 per cent, 

 and is dangerous in advanced age, while in Sumatra mortality is 

 about 3 per cent. The carrier of the disease in Japan is the larval 

 form of a species of Tromhidium. The host of this mite is the field 

 mouse, which harbours the parasite about the ears. The transmitter 

 in Deli is either a tick or mite. Labourers on estates in which the 

 disease occurs suffer from attack by the larvae of Trombidium sp. 

 and Cheyletus sp. The bite of the Deli form of mite causes violent 

 irritation for about fifteen minutes, while that of the Japanese variety 

 may remain unnoticed for several days. In Deli another host of the 

 tick or mite probably occurs, just as in Japan. Though the pseudo- 

 typhoid of Deli would appear to be much less fatal than the kedani of 

 Japan, there are many points of resemblance between the two diseases. 

 Skin affections are an essential part of both, and an eruption appears 

 on the second or third day of the disease and attains its full development 

 on the sixth to eighth day. The course of the fever corresponds in all 

 respects to that seen in enteric fever. In the blood a diminution of 

 polymorphonuclear forms and an increase in lymphocytes is constantly 

 found. The lungs and bronchi may be involved and in fatal cases 

 extensive bronchopneumonia has been found. Agglutination tests 

 with the patients' serum for B. typhosus, B. paratyphosus A, and 

 B. paratyphosus B, as well as attempts to cultivate organisms from 

 the blood, met with no result. 



