Further preliminary reports on flies as carriers of infection.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Further preliminary reports on flies as carriers of infection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/46 (page 4)
    Meteorological Data. These should include records of air and soil temperature, of rainfall, of direction and force of wind, and duration of bright sunshine. Persistence of rainy weather has a marked influence in reducing prevalence of flies; while, with a high atmospheric temperature and bright sunshine, flies tend rapidly to increase in presence of the necessary food-material required by them during the larval stage of their existence. In connection with prevalence both of flies and of epidemic enteritis it is also obviously important, when possible, to obtain graphic record of the 4 ft. soil temperature. In the event of flies being trapped the species of which is unknown and local sources of information not being available, specimens should be packed in a match-box with soft tissue paper {not cotton-wool, which is apt to cause damage to the insects, whose legs, &c. become entangled in it) and despatched at once to Mr. E. E. Austen, British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington, London, together with a brief note as to the date, locality, and other circumstances of their capture. S. Monckton Copeman. July, 1909. 2. Notes on Experiments in Colouring Flies, for PURPOSES OF Identification. Conducted, under the DIRECTION OF PrOF. NuTTALL, AT I’HE QuiCK LABORA- TORY, Cambridge, during July and August, 1908. By J. P. Jepson. The flies used for the experiments were captured by means of “ fly-balloons,” which were placed in two difierent bake-houses, and two grocer’s shops. The most plentiful supply was obtained from the bake-houses, where the flies abounded in great numbers. It should be remarked that in each case the bake-house was situated in the yard of a public livery stable, which probably accounts for the presence of the flies in specially large numbers. The traps were collected each morning, and afterwards re-set with brown sugar, moistened with stale beer, which proved a very successful source of attraction. About 98 per cent, of the flies captured were Musca domestica. The object of the experiments was to discover some method of marking the flies in large numbers, so that they could easily be identified later. The experiments were only of a preliminary character, and conducted on a somewhat small scale. It is hoped shortly to carry out similar experiments on a larger scale. In the first instance, a large number of flies were dusted with ordinary household flour. This method was suggested by the fact