270 Illinois State Lahoratory of Natural History. 



Two attempts were made to convey the contagion by 

 means of diseased larvae to localities not reached by it, — one 

 lot being sent October 3, to Dr. Boardmam, at Elmira, and 

 one to Prof. Osborn, at Ames, Iowa. The experiment of Dr. 

 Boardman was not wholly satisfactory, for the reason that 

 through an unfortunate delay of the package the worms which 

 I sent him did not arrive until October 22, at which time the 

 disease had appeared spontaneously, in a small way, in his vicin- 

 ity. Nevertheless he selected, October 23, two lots of twenty- 

 five worms each, all perfectly healthy to appearance, fed them 

 regularly, but exposed all of them to the contagion by enclos- 

 ing them in two boxes with the dead and sick caterpillars which 

 I had sent him. At the same time he secured ten healthy larvae 

 in a box by themselves and kept them free from infection. The 

 latter lot all pupated without accident, but were not followed 

 further. The first two lots commenced to show symptoms of 

 disease on the fifth day, and by the eighth day all of both lots 

 were dead, except three, only one of which finally reached pu- 

 pation. Even this pupa, in fact, afterwards died and decayed. 

 By this time, however, the disease was so violently raging in 

 the open fields that no great value can be attached to this ex- 

 periment, especially as the fluids were not microscopically 

 examined. 



The material sent Professor Osborn, of Iowa, including 

 dead and dying worms and a mounted slide of the micrococci, 

 arrived October 5, and two cabbage heads were at once infected. 

 On the 7th one of the worms " had evidently succumbed to the 

 disease." The gathering of the cabbages under observation 

 during the temporary absence of Prof. Osborn necessarily inter- 

 fered with the further progress of the experiment, but he col- 

 lected such worms as he could from the stumps and fed them 

 in confinement. A number of these larvae died, and December 

 28 he wrote me that he had " found micrococci in a number of 

 sick and dead cabbage worms, which must certainly have taken 

 the disease from the ones sent." 



Although these experiments, taken alone, could scarcely 

 be regarded as conclusive as to the contagious character of 

 flacherie, taken in connection with the other facts mentioned, 

 we must at least allow them some weight as cumulative evidence. 



