BY W. R. COLLEDGE. 127 



sections a librous structure, transversely striated, uniting them 

 together ; I have also found muscle attached to the walls. This 

 gives some colour to the notion that the sections of the pump, 

 united by elastic ligament, may be pulled apart by these side 

 muscles, and contract by the connective elastic tissue, and so 

 set the pump in operation. But this is only conjecture. This 

 shows that though many of these fields have been trodden by 

 microscopic walkers, there are still numerous by-paths where 

 research can be pleasureably and profitably pursued. 



The mosquito has actually been used in Havana 

 by ])rs. Finlay and Delgado as the means of inoculating 

 new-chums with a mild form of yellow fever. The insects 

 were kept in a ward in which lay a yellow fever patient, 

 and afterwards introduced to the person they were intended 

 to inoculate. A number of these patients took the fever 

 in a mild form, the deaths only reaching two per cent. 

 A very decided contrast to the number of deaths usually 

 resulting from " yellow Jack." These experiments almost decide 

 the (juestion as to whether the mosquito is capable of carrying 

 infectious diseases. Some time ago the Indian Government 

 deputed Surgeon -Major Ross to investigate the action of mos- 

 quitoes in conveying malaria. He showed a series of slides re- 

 cently, before the Eoyal Society in London, which exhibited 

 successive stages in the process of infection, and he claiuis to 

 have proved that the malarial parasite is absorbed from a diseased 

 subject and itself becomes attacked. The parasites fertilise and 

 multiply in its body, finding their way ultimately into the 

 salivary and poison glands, and thence are injected into the next 

 subject they sting. He believes that only one species of mos- 

 quito, "the t( )i< I j tildes,'' are concerned in this business, and it may 

 be possible to stamp them out. 



There is a curious disease named " FiJtnia Stnu/uijii.^ " in 

 which small worms are found in the blood during the night. 

 Every year a few cases are treated in the Brisbane Hospital. 

 The late Dr. Joseph Bancroft, of Brisbane, was the first to dis- 

 cover the parent worms in this disease, and in recognition of his 

 valuable work, one of the names of this disease has been christ- 

 ened after him Filnrui Bdncmfti. Dr. Manson caused a China- 

 man, suffering from this disease, to sleep in an outhouse infested 

 by a certain kind of mosquito. Afterwards he killed some of 

 them, which had been feeding on the man, and found 



