GJRAULT— THE BEDBUG 
71 
rgos] 
“It is quite remarkable that so little accurate and positive knowledge is available 
regarding an insect that is so universally distributed. I have brought out in 
class lectures the probability of the transmission of diseases by this insect, but do 
not recall references or definite recorded instances proving any such distribution.” 
The inoculation of the host with virulent blood diseases by this insect, seems 
to the writer to be of the highest possible degree of probability, and of the greatest 
importance to the people at large ; and yet up to the present time nothing 
very definite is known, or has been done (excepting negative experiments) in the 
way of clearing up this point. But comparatively few references to anything of 
the kind could be found. A most interesting article was published in the Medical 
Record ( Dewevre, 1892 ) and is quoted in Insect Life ( Riley and Howard, 1893 
a).^ The baccilli of tuberculosis were found in bedbugs attending a tuberculous 
host, who slept in a bed formerly occupied by his brother who died of the disease 
The host was observed to have been bitten by the insects in question. The room 
excepting the bed had been throughly disinfected, .\lthough suspicious, nothing 
conclusive is proven by this, as the second host may have contracted the dis- 
ease in other ways under such circumstances, as for instance from dried sputum 
on the bed, or from direct association with his brother. 
It is not the writer’s intention to go further into such considerations, but 
simply to call attention to the great importance of this question from medical 
and sanitary points of view. It is just as easy, if not easier, to conceive of the 
transmission and inoculation of highly dreaded blood diseases by bedbugs, as it 
is to conceive of the transmission of yellow-fever and malaria by mosquitos 
( Culicidce), or of the spread of disease germs by houseflies ( Musca). And these 
latter have been definitely proven. Then is it not fair to suppose that, taking 
into consideration the much closer interrelations of insect and host and the 
former’s great abundance, universal occurrence, and constant presence^, bedbugs 
have a much greater part to play in the spread of highly contagious diseases 
than do either mosquitoes or flies.’ That is a question that should be answered 
as soon as possible, and especially by the medical profession>^. 
2. Other unknown, neglected, or indefinite points in its life-history. 
For the sake of brevity, these will be passed over as rapidly as possible. 
I'he number of annual generations has not been definitely settled, and very little 
a. And also staled by Alleger (i894>- 
b. As for instance, in the slums of cities and in brothels. 
c. Vide Craig (i8q 8), Titkin and the references given by them, and cf. the very important historical 
and original papers by Nutlall on this subject. 
