Further reports (no. 3) on flies as carriers of infection.

Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further reports (no. 3) on flies as carriers of infection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/76
    TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN BURNS, M.P., PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. SIR, I suspmir herewith a third report in continuation of the investigation authorised by you on Flies as Carriers of Infection, The contents of the two reports already published are given on the first page of the present report. Dr. Graham Smith’s elaborate experiments on flies, described in the present report, throw important new light on the means by which flies may serve to carry infective material and communicate it to food. A summary of these experiments is given on page 39. They show that non-spore-bearing bacteria frequently survive for several days in the crops of flies; and that, after a meal, flies may regurgitate or “vomit” some of the contents of their crops through the proboscis. These facts are suggestive, but Dr. Graham-Smith is cautious in drawing wide inferences from them pending further experiments. Dr. Bernstein discusses on page 41 the possibility of aiding the spread of the fungus disease to which the housefly is subject ; and Dr. Copeman on page 45 summarises the further work of investigation on flies now in hand. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, ARTHUR NEWSHOLME. | WELLCOME INSTITUTE, fe SaUBAARY 3” |. | WelMOmec iT SCN TE rmmemoretyess | August 10th, 1910. No. 40.
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