52 THE HOUSE FLY DISEASE CARRIER 



tically made him the first successful investigator in this 

 direction, since the Wright brothers acknowledge that 

 they owe very much to Langley's scientific papers on 

 this subject. From his interest in this direction, Pro- 

 fessor Langley devoted certain grants from the so- 

 called Hodgkins fund* to the study of the mechanism 

 of flight of various birds and insects. Some of the 

 results of these studies have already been published in 

 the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. During the 

 past ten years a series of these investigations have been 

 carried on under Prof. Robert von Lendenfeld of the 

 University of Prague, and from a report received from 

 Professor von Lendenfeld by the present Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Doctor Walcott, which the 

 writer has been permitted to see, it appears that, after 

 a study of the organs of flight in the Lepidoptera, 

 Hymenoptera, and Diptera by Messrs. Hauptmann, 

 Groschl, Ritter, and Professor von Lendenfeld, the 

 latter became convinced that of all the forms of insects, 

 and indeed of all flying animals, the Diptera would 

 furnish the best models for flying machines. He thinks 

 that a model built according to this pattern should be 

 made and experimented with. Certain studies by Mr. 

 Ritter on the blow fly, which are at the time of this 

 writing in the hands of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for publication, indicate that this insect and its flight 

 would form the best basis for a model. 



This is an interesting and important statement, since 



*A bequest to the Smithsonian Institution for the investigation 

 of the properties of the upper air. 



