series of experiments on the range of flight of Musca domestica, L., 

 in the town of Cambridge. In the course of these experiments over 

 25,000 fiies were liberated under \'arious meteorological conditions, 

 and about 50 observation stations were employed for their recovery. 

 The results of these experiments point towards the following con- 

 clusions : ( 1 ) that house-flies tend to travel either against or across 

 the wind ; this direction may be directly determined by the action of 

 the wind, or indirectly, owing to the flies being attracted by any 

 odours it may convey from a source of food ; (2) that the chief 

 conditions favouring the dispersal of flies are fine weather and a warm 

 temperature ; the nature of the locality is another considerable factor, 

 as in towns flies do not travel so far as in the open country, this being 

 probably due to the food and shelter afforded by the houses ; (3) 

 that under experimental conditions, the height at which the flies 

 are liberated, and also the time of day, influence the dispersal of the 

 insects ; when set free in the afternoon they do not scatter so well 

 as when liberated in the morning ; and (4) that, in the experiments 

 made, the usual maximum flight in localities where houses are numerous 

 seems to be about a quarter of a mile, but in one case a single fly was 

 recovered at a distance of 770 yards ; it should be noted, however, 

 that part of this distance was across fen land. 



Leboeuf (A.). Notes sur I'epidemiologie de la Lepre dans TArchipel 

 Cal^donien. [Notes on the epidemiology of Leprosy in the New 

 Caledonian Archipelago.] — Bull. Soc. Path. Exof., Paris, vi. no. 

 8, 8th Oct. 1913, pp. 551-556. 



The author has for the past 2| years made a series of enquiries in 

 the islands of the Archipelago with a view to determining to what 

 extent insects or acarids are responsible for the transmission of Hansen's 

 disease. Many Diptera which have been at one time or another 

 incriminated, may, he says, be eliminated en bloc. With respect to 

 the SiMULiiDAE, on the Island of Mare, in the Loyalty group, in 1912, 

 the number of lepers formed 4 per cent, or 5 per cent, of the population, 

 and Simulium was unknown in the island ; neither are there any 

 blood-sucking Chironomids. 



As regards the Culicidae, the author states that what he has to say 

 applies only to the sub-family Culicinae, as Anophelines are probably 

 unknown throughout the whole New Caledonian Archipelago, and 

 certainly at Belep in New Caledonia and in the Isle of Pines, Lifu and 

 Mare. He gives a brief description of the character of these islands, 

 which are practically of coral, and no stream, lake or pond is to be 

 found in them. The distribution of Culicines in the three Loyalty 

 Islands (Mare, Lifu and Uvea), with a total population of 11,000 and 

 situated at distance of about 50 nautical miles from New Caledoma, 

 is as follows :— In Mare mosquitos are excessively rare ; in Lifu they 

 are also very rare, except at certain periods of the year at Djoj- 

 Luengani. In Uvea on the contrary they are extremely abundant 

 during the rainy seg-son throughout the whole extent of the island, 

 lasting a little longer into the dry season in the northern parts. Now 

 it is a fact that it is precisely in the Island of Mare, where Culicines 

 are not to be found, that the proportion of lepers is highest. On the 



