358 



account for their occurrence in the coffin, as observed by Dr. Peters. 

 That adults or larvae could have made their way to the body through 

 box and coffin, after burial, seems incredible ; while that, with the tem- 

 perature but little above the freezing point, flies should have been at- 

 tracted to the corpse, while the latter was awaiting interment, and 

 either deposited the.r eggs upon it, before burial, or have been con- 

 veyed within the coffin to. the grave and there began reproduction, ap- 

 pears at first thought almost equally impossible. The fact that the man 

 had died suddenly, in the midst of good health, would rather imply the 

 early appearance and rapid progress of decomposition and, thereby 

 lead to the inference that the odors arising from the body would become 

 more generally diffused throughout the house where this body was 

 being kept, and thus attract any flies which might be present in or 

 about the building. On the other hand the condition of the remains 

 on disinterment, together with the well-known preservative effects of ar- 

 senic, point directly the other way, and to this feature we must also add 

 the absence of the odors contingent to the sick-room, whatever their 

 influence might be in attracting the flies. Furthermore, the room in 

 which the body reposed was not heated, but the temperature kept as 

 nearly as possible coequal with that existing outside, viz, 28° to 37° 

 Fah., the single door communicating with other parts of the house 

 being kept closed as continuously as circumstances would permit. The 

 building is of brick, and in the case of this particular room three of the 

 four walls are outside walls. 



These details are given thus minutely because if these flies inhabit 

 our dwellings during the winter months, future studies should demon- 

 strate the fact. Besides, Dr. Riley suggests to me that as Conicera 

 atra is said by Schiner to breed in decayed radishes in Europe, the 

 present species might have thus originated and been at the time inhab- 

 iting the cellar of this house and drawn therefrom by the odors of the 

 corpse. In this case, I am assured that the cellar contained no vegeta- 

 bles except potatoes, which were not decaying, and that the cellar itself 

 was in a cleanly and* dry condition, and no portion of it was beneath 

 the room containing the remains, but under an ajoining apartment, and 

 that all of the floors were without holes or cracks. Also, that com- 

 munication with this cellar was by a stairway leading from a small 

 room, adjoining the one opening into the apartment containing the 

 body, the door of this cellar-way being kept closed except on occasion 

 of the by no frequent visits to the cellar itself. However, while these 

 facts appear to considerably obscure the theory suggested by Professor 

 Riley, I confess my inability to replace it with a more plausible one, 

 and therefore present it as a substitute until some one can, in the future, 

 throw additional light upon the problem. 



March 15, 1890. 



