198 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 840 



that hookworm eggs perish in three months in 

 faecal material in water. If this is proved, then 

 the effluent from the L.R.S. barrel privy should 

 be stored three months before using as fertilizer. 

 The use of faeces as fertilizer is receiving especial 

 attention for the reason that the commercial 

 argument carries more weight with some people 

 than does the idea of proteoLion to human life 

 and health. (8) In faeces decomposing in water, 

 80 per cent, of the Ascaris eggs are dead in four 

 or five months, but some are still alive, thus 

 outlasting the hookworm. (9) Chloride of lime 

 in the proportion of a quarter pound to about ten 

 quarts of water does not kill hookworm eggs in 

 22 to 40 hours. After four days the eggs are still 

 microscopically normal. 



Flies feed and breed in the dry system. In one 

 place about 80 privies were examined. Although 

 lime was furnished free, it was only used gener- 

 ously in three cases, and flies were breeding in 

 these places as in the others. The faeces are col- 

 lected in wagons and buried; burial under a foot 

 of soil being recommended. The carts carry and 

 distribute flies. Experiments showed that flies 

 developed and crawled up to the surface from fly- 

 blown faeces buried under six and a half inches of 

 sand; they came through 17 inches in 24 hours; 

 and flies issued after burial under 48 inches of 

 sand. Flies were obtained even after burial under 

 six feet of sand. In the last two cases, the sand 

 used was not sterilized but was pure sand care- 

 fully selected. These are final arguments against 

 the dry system. 



The system favors the sporulation of amoebae. 

 Flies can bring to the surface and distribute 

 amoebae spores or typhoid bacilli. Under some 

 circumstances privies may be more important 

 than the manure piles as breeding places for flies. 



Dr. Stiles presented a note on spurious para- 

 sitism. Small oligochsetes were sent in from 

 three different states in three cases recently, with 

 the claim that they were passed in the urine. 

 These are assumed provisionally to be cases of 

 contamination. In one case, however, it was 

 claimed that they were passed in the presence of 

 a physician and into a clean receptacle. A speci- 

 men of a small snake, identified by Dr. Stejneger 

 as Storeria dekayi, was exhibited. This specimen 

 was sent in from Pennsylvania with the claim 

 that it had been passed from the bowels. 



Dr. Cobb presented a note on the abundance of 

 free-living nematodes in the soil. The number 

 per acre amounts to thousands of millions. 

 Reckoning the average length at one and one half 



millimeters, a modest estimate, the nematodes in 

 one acre would extend from Washington to Chi- 

 cago if placed end to end. One genus feeds almost 

 exclusively on diatoms. 



Dr. Garrison brought up the question as to the 

 desirability of designating certain tropical sta- 

 tions as repositories for zoological material con- 

 nected with the study of tropical medicine. Dr. 

 Stiles stated that the international commission 

 hoped to take up that subject in the not too 

 distant future. 



Dr. Ransom gave a brief summary of a paper 

 entitled " The Nematodes Parasitic in the Ali- 

 mentary Tract of Cattle, Sheep and other Rumi- 

 nants," to be published as a bulletin of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry. The paper describes 

 50 species, at least 30 of which occur in the 

 United States, the species described representing 

 18 genera belonging in the five families Ascaridse, 

 Strongylidae, Filariidae, Angiostomidse and Trichi- 

 nellidae. The Strongylidae are divided into the 

 subfamilies Strongylinae and Metastrongylinse, and 

 the Trichinellidae are divided into two new sub- 

 families. Railliet's rejection of the subfamily 

 Strongylinae, following the application of the 

 generic name Strongylus to the so-called seleros- 

 tomes, and his substitution of the name Ankylos- 

 tominae was noted. A Strongyloides from the 

 prong-horn antelope was noted as of particular 

 interest. Members of the Angiostomidae, to which 

 this genus belongs, are characterized by a life 

 cycle including two generations, one of free-living 

 males and females, and another of parasitic her- 

 maphroditic or parthenogenetic forms. In the 

 species in question the parasitic adult molts 

 repeatedly, and the eggs as passed lodge under the 

 old cuticle and are carried away in the old skin 

 when it is shed. It was noted that Strongyloides 

 longus of the sheep is certainly identical with 

 Wedl's Trichosoma papillosum. Two new species 

 of Capillaria are described in the paper. 



Mr. Hall gave a summary of a paper entitled 

 " A Comparative Study of Methods of Examining 

 Faeces for Evidences of Parasitism," to be pub- 

 lished as a bulletin of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry. The paper gave the various methods 

 used in examining faeces and indicated the appli- 

 cation and limitation of each method on the basis 

 of comparative studies. A new modification of 

 technique which had been found more efficient 

 than other methods was then demonstrated in the 

 laboratory. 



Matteice C. Hall, 



Seoretary 



