26 



putrefaction being of great benefit to tbose engaged in work connected 

 with medicine, sanitation, animal nutrition, meat preservation and 

 allied problems. 



The action of creosote oil on maggots is to cause tbem immediately 

 to become contracted, hard and tense and, within 15 minutes, of a 

 deep red colour, changing to black within 24 hours. Eggs shrivel and 

 are immediately killed, as are also adult flies when sprayed with it, 

 and those touched with only minute droplets, as well as those exposed 

 to the vapour of the oil, soon die. 



The bodies of animals, both small and large, can be preserved for 

 several weeks, even in warm and showery weather at the height of the 

 fly season by efiicient surface treatment with creosote oil, provided 

 that the oil is thoroughly applied by means of a brush and the external 

 apertures are carefully treated. Open carcases can be similarly 

 preserved if the exposed surfaces are treated, as they are then protected 

 from the influence of rain and soil water, but the removal of the 

 abdominal organs is disadvantageous, as the process permits of the 

 introduction of putrefactive organisms into the tissues. The burial of 

 carcases containing eggs or maggots does not prevent the subsequent 

 emergence of the flies [see this Review, Ser. B, iv, p. 143]. This 

 treatment repels flies completely for a week or two and prevents any 

 oviposition for two or three weeks, the eggs even then failing to hatch, 

 or if maggots should emerge from any of them, these also die. Surface 

 treatment combined with injection preserves the body for many 

 months. Maggots may be destroyed at any stage of decomposition, 

 this process being arrested and all odour eliminated by suitable 

 treatment with creosote oil. The latter fact is of great importance as 

 regards post-mortem examinations, both human and animal, rats 

 suspected of plague often reaching the laboratory in an advanced stage 

 of decomposition. The use of creosote also protects the workers from 

 the bites of rat-fleas. It would be difficult to overestimate the benefit 

 to be derived from the use of this substance in trench warfare, if used 

 in sufficient quantities. Bodies are mummified by its action and 

 completely deodorised, even after and during a fall of rain, quite 

 small quantities from a spray killing and repelling flies in great numbers. 

 In Gallipoli the most prevalent flies were Musca domestica, Fannia 

 canicularis, F. scalaris, Calliphora vomitoria, C. erythrocepJiala, Lucilia 

 caesar, Sarcophaga carnaria and Muscina stabulans. 



The use of creosote has been most effectively tried in field experi- 

 ments to free dugouts and shelters from flies, a sack being simply hung 

 over the entrance and roughly sprinkled with the oil mixture. A 

 shelter that was full of flies attracted by decomposing animal matter 

 previously placed there was, at the end of 15 minutes, quite free from 

 flies and completely deodorised. Spraying the surroundings of latrines 

 rendered them fly-free for four days. 



The destruction of maggots in large heaps of farmyard manure is 

 difficult, owing to the impossibility of reaching them except by the 

 penetration of water-soluble larvicides, experiments ha\Tng proved 

 that maggots are extremely resistant to the most toxic larvicides, 

 when these are applied in the form of solutions. Hence manure should 

 be kept free by spraying with creosote at the earliest opportunity, each 

 addition to the heap being spread evenly and sprayed at the rate of 

 100 c.c. per horse per day. This treatment does not injure the manure 



