84 SOME MINUTE ANIMAL PARASITES 



the human subject and on animals such as monkeys 

 and guinea-pigs, with exactly the same results. A 

 second type of experiment was made by putting lice 

 contents on the conjunctiva the membrane lining 

 the eyelids. Again infection resulted. This method 

 of infection is quite probable in Africa, where, owing 

 to the attacks of flies, etc., and the ever-present 

 dust, the hand, contaminated with the body contents 

 of an infected louse, might easily be used to rub or 

 touch the eye. 



A further point of interest worked out by these 

 French investigators in Tunis was that not only did 

 the lice retain the infection practically throughout 

 their lives, but the spirochaetes passed into their 

 eggs. These eggs, if crushed, were infective to man, 

 while the larvae issuing from the eggs of infected 

 parents were also infected and capable of trans- 

 mitting the spirochaetes to man. Here, as well as 

 with Ornithodorus moubata, hereditary infection pre- 

 vails. 



A few remarks may be made with regard to the 

 nomenclature'' of the spirochaetes. Recently it has 

 been suggested by certain German workers that 

 the spirochaetes of Lamellibranchs should be 

 separated from the blood - inhabiting group, and 

 should be termed Cristispira, a name based on a 

 trivial quibble with regard to the use of the term 

 ' membrane." Reference is also made to recent work 

 on an organism which is supposed to be the same 

 as that which Ehrenberg described as the type species, 

 Spiroch&ta plicatilis. Now, Ehrenberg published in 

 1833, and naturally was unable to give a full account 



