103 



Howard (L. 0.) & Hutchison (R. H.). The House- Fly.— Z7. S. Dept. 

 Agric, Washingto)), D.C., Farmers' Bull. no. 851, August 1917, 

 23 pp., 15 figs. [Received Tth March 1918.] 



This comprehensive bulletin deals with the house-fly {Musca domes- 

 tica), its life-history, the danger arising from it as a carrier of disease 

 and its control in both the adult and larval stages by means of fly 

 papers, poisons, fly traps, maggot traps and various methods of 

 manure disposal and treatment. 



Other flies found in houses include : — Stomoxys calcitrans (biting 

 stable fly) ; Muscina siabulans (non-biting stable fly), which breeds 

 in decaying vegetable matter and in excrement ; Pollenia rudis, F. 

 (cluster-fly), so called from its habit of collecting in protected corners 

 during cold periods ; Calliphora erythrocephala, Meig. (blow-fly or 

 meat-fly), Phormia terraenovae (bluebottle), and Lucilia caesar (green- 

 bottle), all of which breed in decaying animal matter ; Fannia cani- 

 cularis, L. (lesser house-fly), and F. brevis ; Scenopinus fenestralis, L. 

 (window-fly), the slender, white thread-like larva of which is found 

 in cracks of the floors in buildings, where it feeds on other small 

 insects ; and Drosophila ampelophila (vinegar-fly), which is attracted 

 by the odour of over-ripe fruit in late summer and autumn. 



The natural enemies of the house-fly include Scutigera forceps 

 (common house centipede), which destroys it in considerable numbers ; 

 a small reddish mite ; parasitic Hymenojrtera, which attack it in the 

 larval and pupal stages ; and predatory ants and beetles. 



Leger(A.). Spiroch6tose sanguine animale a Dakar. Sa Valeur au 

 Point de Vue epid6miologique. [Spirochaete Infection in the 

 Blood of Animals at Dakar. Its Value from the Point of View of 

 Epidemiology.]— .BmW. Soc. Path. Exot., Paris, xi, no. 2, 13th 

 February 1918, pp. 64-66. 



Since describing observations on a spirochaete in the blood of the 

 shrew, Crocidura stampfiii, Bit Dakar [see this Review, Ser. B., v, p. 98], 

 an identical parasite with the same morphology and pathogenic 

 action has been found in two individuals of Mus decumanus out of 

 over 500 examined. The study of this spirochaete revealed morpho- 

 logical characters analogous to those of human relapsing fever ; more- 

 over, its development in various laboratory animals such as mice, 

 rats, monkeys, rabbits, guinea-pigs, etc., enabled this virus to 

 be compared with that of human spirochaetosis, bat without the 

 possibility of certain identification with any of the known spirochaetes, 

 either Russian, American, African, Indian or Tonkinese. Difieren- 

 tiation by means of immunity reactions would have enabled the 

 identification to be established, but the difficulty of procuring the 

 virus from other sources has prevented this investigation. Although 

 relapsing fever has never to the author's knowledge been recorded 

 in man at Dakar, nor in the Senegalese districts, it is well to be on 

 guard against its appearance. The development of this spirochaete 

 in the various laboratory animals indicates more or less easy trans- 

 mission to man. The conditions for such transmission already exist 

 in the colony : carriers of the virus (rats, shrews, etc.) are abundant 

 throughout the region, living in constant contact with the natives in 



