PROCEEDINGS. 621 



■lever come to the National Museum from anyone district". — A coloured 

 plate of these new varieties of Squirrels and a Map of the Chindwin River 

 would be found in the Journal just issued, No. 2, Vol. XXIV. 



Other specimens which had been forwarded by members from Mesopotamia 

 and elsewhere were also described. 



The Secretary announced that Professor Maxwell-Lefroy had kindly 

 consented to deliver a lecture on " The Prevention and the treatment of 

 Vermin, Flies and other insects at the Front " before the Society on Tuesday, 

 the 14th March. 



A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the meeting. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING HELD ON 15th MARCH 1916. 



A meeting of the Bombay Natural History Society was held at the 

 Elphinstone College on Wednesday, March 15th, 1916, the Hon'ble Mr. 

 Justice Macleod presiding, when Professor H. Maxwell-Lefroy lectured on 

 " The Treatment of Flies and Vermin at the Front ". 



The lecturer described the outbreak of vermin which took place in the 

 British Expeditionary Force during the first few months of war and the 

 efforts made to cope with it when the authorities became aware of its 

 importance. 



In Serbia the epidemic of typhus was due to the prevalence of lice and 

 to the fact that typhus cases were found in the hospitals in Belgrade when 

 the Serbians retook the City. 



In France and Flanders, great care was now taken to prevent any infec- 

 tion of typhus and the plague of vermin is now coped with. The methods 

 and remedies were described : these are explained in a pamphlet of which 

 copies will shortly be available in Bombay. 



The lecturer then dealt with methods of checking and preventing flies : 

 ithe housefly must be distinguished from the blowfly, as the two have 

 different breeding habits, though both are disease carriers. 



Among the methods described were those used to prevent fly breeding 

 in manure, the poisoning of flies with arsenical solutions, the trapping of 

 flies in window traps, the use of liquids for making fly papers, and the new 

 method of killing flies by means of liquids diffused in the air. 



These have been tested by the Army Medical Authorities and adopted by 

 the War Office : it is hoped that the latest " fly spray " will soon be obtain- 

 able in India. Medical Officers requiring copies of the pamphlet may obtain 

 them from the Secretary of the Society, but only a limited number are 

 available. 



The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Macleod in moving a vote of thanks to the 

 lecturer referred to the great importance of this subject and the meeting- 

 then terminated. 



