1939] 
Notes on Hippoboscidae 
81 
Dr. Gaines Kan-chih Liu has called my attention to ref- 
erences to dog-flies in the early Chinese medical literature 
and has kindly translated some of these for my paper. In 
the “Chi Tung Yeh Yu,” by Chow Mi (who lived 1232 to 
1308), one reads: “A colleague of mine, Chen P’o, of Quo 
Chang, is an old scholar. His grandson, when three years 
old, was seriously ill with fever for a week, after which 
“to” (or small-pox) broke out, the whole body turning black 
and the lips being icy cold. After all remedies had failed, 
the grandfather went to the temple to pray God for help. 
There he met a stranger, who, upon learning of the case, told 
the grandfather how to cure it. The prescription consisted 
of seven dog-flies, ground into a powder and taken with 
wine. The medicine was very effective and the child soon 
was in good health, the black color disappearing.” In the 
later “Pen Tsao Kang Mu” (1578), by Li Shih-chen, one 
finds: “Dog-flies live on the body of the dog. They can 
fly, are yellow and fly-like and have a hard skin. They have 
a sharp beak and suck the blood of the dog. Formerly they 
were not known to be used in Medicine; but recently they 
have been recommended by the Chi Tung Yeh Yu for cur- 
ing small-pox and by the Yi Fang Da Chien for malaria. It 
seems to me that they must act like the cattle-lice and the 
chufoo (or sawbugs). For malaria, the flies, after removal 
of the appendages, are made into pills with dough. They 
should be taken the morning of the day an attack of fever is 
due and the cure will be successful if vomiting is provoked. 
Another method is to make the flies into pills with wax and 
take the pills with wine. For small-pox and skin troubles, 
soak the fly in wine and then take both the fly and the wine.” 
Finally the “Chien Wu ” (1582), by Li Su, says: “The dog- 
flies deposit among the hairs of the dog their nits (puparia) , 
which after molting become flies. They always live on the 
back of the neck, where they bite frequently and where the 
dog cannot reach them with its mouth or paws.” 
3. Hippobosca fulva Austen. — Through the courtesy of 
his discovery that the Archbishop Eustace of Saloniki, in his Com- 
mentary of the Iliad, suggests that the Greek word “Jcunamuya” 
(which he proposes to emend to “kunomuya”) evidently meant the tick. 
But this statement proves only that the Archbishop was more profi- 
cient in philology than in natural history. 
