422 
Sunday in spring. The maritime flora and fauna are late to awake, 
and most of the insects peculiar to the seacoast can still be found in 
their winter quarters by the end of April. That on the naked rolling 
sand hills there is only a single place fit for insect hibernation must be 
apparent at the first glance, even to a tyro in entomology ; unless they 
fly great distances they can hibernate only within or beneath the dense 
stools of grasses. By pulling out any good-sized stool and beating it 
out on the smooth surface of the sand or over a cloth, a multitude of 
various insects are sure to be found, and among them always plenty 
of chinch bugs. It may be added that these stools not only serve 
as winter quarters, but the chinch bugs also crawl into them during 
the day in summer time to protect themselves from the fierce rays of 
the sun. — E. A. S. 
TRANSMISSION OF INFECTION BY FLIES. 
At the annual conversazione of the Koyal Society held May 1, 1-895, 
says " Nature" for May 9, Mr. W. T. Burgess showed the results of experi- 
ments in connection with the transmission of infection by flies. Flies 
having been placed in momentary contact with a cultivation of Bacillus 
prodigiosus (or other suitable chromogenic organism) were allowed to 
escape into a large room. After some "time they were recaptured and 
allowed to walk, for a few seconds, over slices of sterile potatoes, which 
were then incubated for a few days. The experiments showed that the 
flies 7 tracks on the potatoes were marked by vigorous growths of the 
chromogenic organism, even when the flies spent several hours in con- 
stant activity before they were recaptured. The use of pathogenic 
organisms in these experiments would be attended with obvious dan- 
gers, but the results obtained with harmless microbes indicated the 
constant risks to which flies expose us. 
A REMEDY AGAINST FLEAS. 
All persons who have lived in a house which has become infested 
with fleas in summer will know how these creatures inhabit the floor 
by preference, and how they will jump upon the legs and ankles of 
everyone who passes near them. Taking advantage of this fact, some 
years ago, when the lower floor of McGraw Hall of Cornell University 
was badly infested by fleas, which had come from animals temporarily 
kept threre in confinement, Prof. S. H. Gage invented the following 
ingenious plan. He had the negro janitor put on a pair of rubber boots, 
and then tied sheets of sticky fly paper, with the sticky side outward, 
around the legs of the boots. The janitor was then told to patrol the 
lower floor for several hours a day. The result was gratifying and 
rather surprising. The sheets of fly paper soon became black with 
fleas and had to be changed at intervals, but by this means the build- 
ing was almost completely rid of the pest, with a minimum of trouble 
to everyone except the janitor. 
