REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1908 29 
for the transmission of typhoid fever are fingers, food and flies,” 
the authors holding the last to be the most important. 
The possibilities of transmitting typhoid fever are appalling to 
the layman when it is remembered that the germs of this disease 
may be in the system several weeks before diagnosis is possible, 
continue in numbers six to eight weeks after apparent recovery 
and in exceptional cases may be discharged from the system during 
a period of several years. There are authentic records of a patient 
aistributing these germs for 17 years and being the incipient cause 
of 13 cases during 14 years of that period. Furthermore, Dr M. 
A. Veeder of Lyons cites a case where typhoid fever was perpetu- 
ated from year to year in a locality, ascribing it to a physician 
recommending the burial of all typhoid excreta and the execution 
of this direction by a favorite nurse. It is well known that soil 
infected by these germs may be the origin of new cases, and Dr 
Veeder significantly observes that the annual recurrence of typhoid 
fever in the above mentioned locality ceased with the death of the 
two parties mentioned above and a change in the method of dis- 
“posing of typhoid discharges. 
The evidence against this insect may therefore be summed up 
briefly as follows: Virulent typhoid bacilli have been found upon 
the legs and within the body of this insect, persisting in the latter 
case for 23 days. A number of serious outbreaks have been ob- 
served by competent physicians, where infection through a com- 
mon water or food supply did not satisfactorily explain the out- 
break. This positive evidence, while not establishing beyond all 
question the culpability of the fly, is further supported by the 
opinion of a number of reputable physicians who have had exten- 
sive experience with outbreaks of this character. 
The evidence showing that flies may play an important part in 
the diffusion of cholera is, according to Dr Nuttall, absolutely con- 
vincing. He cites experiments showing that cholera bacilli may 
be found on flies in large numbers, while they may occur in the 
dejecta within 17 hours after feeding and as late as four days. 
Infected flies have been given access to milk and cholera cultures 
made therefrom. 
. Typhoid fever and cholera, while both serious infections, are by 
no means the only diseases which may be conveyed by flies. Cer- 
tain forms of diarrhoea and enteritis are undoubtedly due to spe- 
cific germs, and there is no reason why the bacilli causing these 
infections may not be carried as easily and in the same way as 
