92 Veterinary Medicine. 



growth, and driving the sitting hens to abandon their nests. In 

 such cases the eggs are marked with black spots caused by the 

 excrements of the bugs. These bugs are very tenacious of life. 

 Railliet claims that he has kept them alive for months in an 

 empty glass bottle, where they could get no nourishment. 



A. Hirundinis. Bug of the Swallow's Nest is not un- 

 common, and would appear to be the means of infesting dwell- 

 ings and poultry houses. 



A. Lectularia : Cimex L. : The Bed Bug. This closely 

 resembles the A. Columbarum, but it is more deeply notched on 

 the front of the prothorax, has its greatest breadth back of the 

 middle, and the abdomen a little less round. 



The ova are laid in March, May, July and September in joints 

 and cracks of wooden beds, floors or walls, under wall paper, in 

 folds, etc., of matr esses, and the young undergo four moultings 

 in the course of about eleven months. 



The mature bug evades daylight, but comes out in the dark- 

 ness and attacks human beings showing a preference for .some 

 and a dislike for others. They make painful bites sucking the 

 blood, and giving rise to great trouble and suffering. They have 

 been the intermediate bearers of bacillus tuberculosis from man 

 to man and they may well carry other infections. Tenacious of 

 life they have been kept two years alive in an empty bottle. 

 (Audouin). 



Destruction of Bugs. To destroy the bugs Persian insect 

 powder may be blown freely into all the cracks and joints about 

 the bed, in walls, floor, wall paper, etc., and may be freely dusted 

 in the nests and about the building in the case of dove cots and 

 poultry houses, also under the feathers of the hens. Mercuric 

 chloride in powder or solution is still more effective but must be 

 used with greater caution on account of its toxic qualities. It 

 should be introduced freely into all recesses, the possible hiding 

 places of the parasite, and left until the insect has finally disap- 

 peared. In aviaries the nests and roosts, above all, should be 

 thoroughly saturated. Cleanliness is an essential condition of 

 success as the caddice and excretions will otherwise afford shelter 

 for the parasite. Yet if the places where it reaches its victim are 

 kept saturated the final destruction is certain for all gravitate 

 toward these points. Railliet says that narrow leaved cress, or 



