1044 General Notes. [December, 



by Win. H. Walmsley in The Microscope. It forms a convenient 

 appendix to the volume. 



The House-fly as a Carrier of Contagion.— This subject, 

 which has attracted some attention of late, was discussed by Dr. 

 Thomas Taylor, of Washington, at the Montreal meeting of the • 

 A. A. A. S. Having noticed a species of anguillula within the pro- 

 boscis and abdomen of dissected flies, he undertook a series of 

 experiments to determine whether the house-fly might not be a 

 carrier and distributor of germinal virus of various kinds. The 

 suction tube of the fly was found by measurement to be of suffi- 

 cient diameter to admit of taking up the spores of cryptogams, 

 trichina, the eggs of anguillula, or even the anguillula themselves. 

 Thirteen specimens of anguillula were found in the proboscis of a 

 single house fly, and sixteen acari in the thorax of another. 

 Furthermore, flies fed with the spores of the red rust of grasses, 

 mixed with sugar, swallowed it freely, and afso carried about the 

 spores attached to the hairs on their' limbs. The fact that by far 

 the greater part of the spores were consumed, and digested with- 

 out germinating, suggested to the author that the flies might thus 

 be destroyers of microscopic germs as well as disseminators of 

 them. Dr. Leidy made similar observations some years ago. 



Recent Microscopical Papers : — 



theory of disease 

 s B. Plowright, 



