197 



The Protection of Meat from Flies. — Ausfralasian Med. Gazette, 

 Si/dnrij, xxxiii, no. 18, 3rcl May 1913. 



A letter is published in the Gazette from the largest firm 

 of butchers in Auckland, in which it is stated that screening 

 meat from insects has ejected a great saving, as it has 

 diminished trimming for fly-blows ; it has increased the sales, 

 the public appreciating the change; the meat lias kept better, 

 and less ice lias been used than when the meat had to be kept 

 in the ice chest. The screens do not interfere appreciably with 

 ventilation, and the system has been found so advantageous 

 ill every way that the firm is extending it to all its branches. 



Shoemaker (H.). Pellagra, Surgery, the Colloids, and Strong 

 Drugs. — New York Med. Jonni., 2nd Aug. 1913, pp. 

 214-219. 



The author starts from the premiss that mosquitos and all 

 species of flies, including Musca domestiea, Simuliuvi — very 

 numerous at Shelby, N. C, in the season beginning March 

 1913 — and Stomo.fi/s calcitrans, carry parasitic mites; of which 

 Leptiis irritans and L. ainericaiivs (Harvest-bugs, Red-bugs or 

 Jiggers) attack human beings, while Pedicnloides rentricosus of 

 straw^ disease, which is predaceous on the larvae of Sitotroga 

 cerealella. Isotoma grande and I. t/itici\ is obnoxious to man. 

 Such being the case, the author suggests that the possible rela- 

 tion of such mites to pellagra must be investigated by those who 

 uphold the theory of its propagation by flies ; for the mites may 

 limit the disease by the destruction of the fly larvae, or may, 

 on the other hand, carry the germs within themselves. He adds 

 that the etiological factor of the disease should be sought where 

 there are preliminary symptoms very suggestive of pellagra. 



The Eed-bug in a New Role. — New York Med. Journ., 26th July 

 1913, p. 191. 



An editorial comment upon the occurrence of five cases of 

 typhoid, in 1910, on an island immune in every respect from 

 the disease. This was found not to proceed from food, water, 

 flies, drainage or sewage, but from a prisoner captured in a 

 distant town where typhoid was endemic, who transmitted it to 

 four other occupants of cells in the guard-house. A careful 

 examination w^as made and it was ascertained that the air and 

 numerous bed-bugs were the only factors which the inmates had 

 in common. Complete extermination of the i)ests was effected 

 by fumigation, and the disease wholly and permanently dis- 

 appeared. Tw^o other cases of typhoid are mentioned, in which 

 every other conceivable source of infection was eliminated ; and 

 the insects would appear to account for many others in which the 

 fever, for no ascertainable cause, passed from one person to 

 another within the same building. 



