382 
C. GORDON HEWITT. 
could easily move down into the cavity of the proboscis. I 
am unaware of any previous record of the occurrence of 
Habronema muscse in this country, but I have no doubt 
that if one searched specially for it it would be found to 
occur more commonly than might appear from my experience, 
and to be generally distributed with its host throughout the 
world. 
The occurrence of a parasitic worm in this position is of 
great interest, even though M. domestica is not a blood- 
sucking species and the nematode is not of the nature of 
Filaria bancrofti. There is no reason, however, why M. 
domestica should not under certain conditions carry patho- 
genic nematodes, which might easily get on to the food of 
man. 
3. Dissemination of Parasitic Worms. 
In this connection reference might be made to the experi- 
ments of Grassi (1883) to which reference is made by Nuttall 
in his valuable memoir (1899). Grassi broke up segments of 
Taenia solium in water; they had previously been preserved 
in alcohol for some time. Flies sucked up the eggs in the 
water and he found them unaltered in the faeces. Oxyuris eggs 
were also passed unaltered. In another experiment flies fed 
on the eggs of Trichocephalus and he found the eggs some 
hours afterwards in the flies’ fteces, which had been deposited 
in the story beneath the laboratory ; he also caught flies in 
this kitchen with their intestines full of eggs. 
Calandruccio^ examined flies (? species) which had settled 
upon faeces containing the ova of Taenia nana. The ova 
were found in the flies’ intestines. The excrement deposited 
by a fly on sugar contained two or three ova of the Taenia. 
By means of such infected sugar a girl was infected, and ova 
of T. nana were found in her stools on the twenty-seventh 
day. 
1 “ Ulteriori ricerche sulla Taenia nana," “Boll. Soc. Zool. Ital. 
Roma,’ vol. vii, pp. 65-69 ; also in ‘ Boll. Acad. Gioenia, Catania,' Base. 
89, pp. 15-19. 
