C. M. Wenyon 
285 
the summer, it is the custom in Bagdad to sleep at night on the flat 
roof tops, and in the afternoons in the Sirdarbs, which are dark cellars 
partially below the ground. Both in the Sirdarbs and on the roof, 
people are liable to be bitten by all the biting flies found in Bagdad. 
An ordinary mosquito net will protect against any biting insects, but 
the Phlebotamus, which is able to pass through all but the finest mesh. 
In order to avoid infection it is essential to protect oneself against flies 
which feed upon one when asleep. The common house-fly is probably 
at least a mechanical carrier of the disease, and every care must be 
taken not to sleep in the day time without some protection against 
these insects which are constantly swarming over the exposed sores on 
the faces of the children. Any open wound on the face or hands is 
liable to be infected, and such should be carefully protected from the 
flies. In the case of children care must be taken to prevent them from 
inoculating themselves in other places b}^ scratching the sores. 
In a town like Bagdad where the disease is so common, though one 
may take every precaution it will be difficult to avoid the disease if one 
remains there any length of time. In such cases the most reasonable 
course to adopt is that of preventive inoculation. Such an inoculation 
will enable the person to choose the site of the sore and so avoid the 
inconvenience and risk of contracting the disease on the face with its 
resulting scar. The simple procedure of inoculation on the leg or arm 
would prevent the unsightly scars which one so commonly sees on the 
faces of the Bagdad inhabitants. Of course, in some cases sores would 
develop at other places than that chosen for inoculation, but such would 
be the result of a natural infection which had taken place at about the 
time of the inoculation. A protective inoculation of this kind would 
lessen very considerably the number of people having sores on exposed 
surfaces of the body. 
This diminution in the number of sores on the exposed surfaces of 
the body, would in all probability have an important bearing on the 
spread of the disease. A sore on an exposed surface of the body, such 
as the face, is always an attraction to the myriads of flies which are to 
be found in localities like Bagdad. A sore on an unexposed surface 
would be free from these attacks and would not be a possible source of 
infection for others. With biting flies, such as mosquitoes, it is a little 
more difficult. If a biting fly is the agent of transmi.ssion, does this fly 
take up the parasite from the circulation or from the sore itself? 
Though Neumann has found parasites in the periplieral blood on 
rare occasions, my repeated examinations in Bagdad have failed to 
