268 
CHARLES F. DAWSON. 
conveyed cholera poison, received confirmation from the re¬ 
searches of Savtschenko. This observer states that the specific 
bacilli had been supplied to them ; preparations from these 
flies showed numerous bacilli which had multiplied on the 
bodies of the flies. Cholera bacilli later from the bowels of 
these flies killed guinea-pigs as quickly as the original culture. 
In connection with the matter it may be mentioned that chol¬ 
era chiefly prevails when flies are most numerous. If cholera 
may thus be spread, it is certainly probable that other diseases 
may be disseminated in a similar manner — enteric fever, 
phthisis, anthrax, leprosy, for example—especially in a country 
where, outside of hospitals, no care is taken as to the disposal 
or disinfection of excreta, or to the disinfection and washing of 
soiled clothing.” 
In Jonathan Hutchinson’s “ Archives of Surgery,” Vol. VI, 
pp. 368-378, 1895, we find a chapter on flies, fleas, etc., as agents 
in the dissemination of disease. The authors say : 
u Flies have, by many observers, been accused as the means 
of contagion in the ophthalmia which prevails in armies and 
especially in hot countries. I have long believed that they 
were responsible for much that we notice in reference to school 
ophthalmia in this country, and possibly other maladies. The 
hypothesis was one which seemed most probable in the in¬ 
stance of the school epidemic reported to the Ophthalmological 
Society two years ago. In this instance every precaution had 
been taken as regards the use of towels, handkerchiefs, etc., yet 
the disease had continued to spread. In several instances boys 
sleeping in adjoining beds had been attacked simultaneously, or 
in rapid succession. The disease had also spread in the city in 
which the school was situated, and it had been especially noted 
that it was at its height during the hot summer weather. Al¬ 
most parallel observations have been made upon “ erysipelas 
eczema,” which recently prevailed as an epidemic in some of 
our workhouses. It too had been a disease of hot weather, had 
appeared to spread from bed to bed, although now and then 
attacking those who had been little exposed. There are, in 
