118 ASSOCIATION" OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



from the twigs or lying on the ground beneath. Drawing nearer, I 

 found that the larvae were being attacked by a very small sucking 

 fly, from one to half a dozen being perched on each larva, on which 

 they remained until it was sucked dry. Mr. Coquillett has kindly 

 determined this fly as Ceratopogon erioplwrus Will., previously re- 

 ported only from the island of St. Vincent. This mosquito-like 

 method of attack and its remarkable effectiveness were very novel and 

 interesting to me. 



SOME NOTES ON LEPROSY IN HAVANA. 

 By C. F. Baker, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. 



In doing what I could to investigate the possible relation of fleas 

 to leprosy, I have examined the leper hospital of San Lazaro, in 

 Havana; and in this connection have made some observations and 

 had some experiences which possess some psychological as well as 

 entomological interest. 



In the first place, to the hospital physicians it seemed absurd that 

 I should busy myself with a study of the fleas of rats; absolutely 

 nothing was said in any of their books about any possible relation 

 of rats to leprosy. Then my attention was called to the fact that 

 they and the nurses had been there some time and had not yet 

 acquired leprosy though they were commonly flea-bitten ; so the pos- 

 sibilities of infection by this means could be set aside at the outset. 

 My suggestion that the same result might be true also of tuberculosis 

 did not seem to carry much point. However, my business was with 

 the rats and the lepers, and I found them far more productive of 

 facts. The old hospital swarms with rats, and the rats have fleas 

 unlike rat fleas of the temperate regions, and which, as I have noted 

 in Science, are very nearly related to Pidex irritans. Talking with 

 the lepers brought to light immediately some remarkably significant 

 points. They were greatly interested when a possible relation between 

 the rats and their terrible disease was hinted at, and immediately 

 united in saying that the rats frequently carried sores like theirs 

 and were frequently minus ears or tail. On the cots there were no 

 nets, nor were there screens on the windows. I had the general evi- 

 dence of the lepers themselves that it was no uncommon thing for rats 

 to climb on to the cots at night and gnaw at their insensible sores. 

 Naturally my interest in all this rose by leaps and bounds, and I 

 immediately set traps for the rats. The first one caught had a sore 

 on its body, and I hurried with it to the president of the board of 

 control of the hospital, who is also the director of the city bacteri- 

 ological laboratory. Together we went at once to the laboratory 

 and asked the bacteriologist to prepare and stain some cover glass 

 smears from the sores, applying the ordinary tuberculosis test, which 



