DISSEMINATION OF SYPHILIS BY FLIES 287 



that flies might act as one of the carriers of the tropical disease 

 Kala-Azar, a disease caused by a species of Leishnuinia, he stated 

 that two years ago he had fed a large number of bred house-flies 

 (Masca nebula, an Indian species) on fresh splenic juice and had 

 found that the parasites disappeared from the alimentary tract in 

 a few hours. It was difficult, therefore, to understand how the 

 parasite could be transmitted in this way. Such an observation 

 was against the theory that flies feeding upon the discharge from 

 an ulcerated sore might carry the infection. In another paper 

 Pat ton (1912) gives further details and states that flies fed upon 

 the discharge from the sores and afterwards on abrasions or 

 scratches did not produce the sore although the experiment was 

 carried out daily for about a month. The same investigator has 

 since brought forward very conclusive evidence as to the organism 

 being carried by the bed-bug. 



Syphilis. 



I have been able to discover one reference only to the possi- 

 bility of flies acting as agents in the spread of this disease by the 

 mechanical transfer of the Spi7'ochaeta, the syphilitic organism, 

 from a patient to a healthy person. Dr Kerr of Morocco, in a 

 paper on " Some Prevalent Diseases in Morocco," read before the 

 Glasgow Medico-chirurgical Society (Dec. 7th 1906), described 

 epidemics of syphilis, where, according to the author, the disease 

 was spread by flies which had been feeding upon the open sores of 

 a s\"philitic patient. 



