BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY). 55 



of the Trustees, for service during the war. In addition, 31 tem- 

 porary assistants and outside workers associated with the Museum, 

 and 61 sons of members, or of former members, of the staff are 

 serving in either the Navy, the Regular Army, or the Territorials. 

 With one exception, every man of military age on the stafE has 

 offered himself for attestation, and been either accepted or excused 

 on the ground of unfitness. 



The Museum has been able to render assistance to Government 

 Departments in various matters connected with the war. The 

 following may be mentioned : — 



The Zoological Department received from the Military Hospital, 

 Tooting, a specimen of a leech which had been removed from 

 the nose of a soldier invalided home from the Dardanelles. The 

 leech was found to belong to a Mediterranean species well known 

 to give trouble by entering the nasal cavities or the larynx of man, 

 being introduced when swallowing water, or by crawling into 

 the nostrils. As the facts of the case suggested that our soldiers 

 serving in the Near East might be exposed to a danger unknown to 

 the Medical Departments of the Navy and Army, a report on the 

 matter, prepared by Dr. Harmer, was sent to the Head of the 

 Medical Department of the Admiralty and to the Director General 

 of the Army Medical Service, from both of whom acknowledgments 

 have been received, together with an intimation that the medical 

 officers serving in the Mediterranean would be notified in order 

 that the necessary precautions might be taken. The report has also 

 been reproduced in the Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service. 



Advice has been given by the Entomological Department in the 

 matter of the eradication of vermin. 



In connection with this subject the Trustees have issued a leaflet 

 for general information on " The Danger of Disease from Flies and 

 Lice " (price Id. for six copies. Is. for 100), and also a pamphlet on 

 " The Louse and its Relation to Disease " (price Id.), uniform with 

 the pamphlet on " The House-fly as a Danger to Health," published 

 two years ago. Steps have been taken to give these pamphlets the 

 widest possible circulation, and large numbers of them have been 

 placed at the service of the Admiralty and the War Office for the 

 use of the Medical Services of the Navy and Army. 



The Botanical Department has been consulted by the Naval 

 Air Service as regards the use of a suitable wood material for air- 

 ship construction. The same Department has given help to the 

 War Office by answering inquiries of a varied nature ; for example, 

 as to an organism which was damaging the fabric of air-ships : 

 it proved to be a fungus ; the examination of oats with a view to the 

 discovery of poisonous seeds, in connection with an outbreak of 

 presumed fodder poisoning at a Military Veterinary Hospital. 



The Army Council have expressed their appreciation of the 

 assistance rendered by the Museum in connection with the inquiry 

 into moth infestation of Army biscuit. The inquiry has given 



