On the role of insects, arachnids and myriapods, as carriers in the spread of bacterial and parasitic diseases of man and animals. A critical and historical study / by George H. F. Nuttall.
- George Nuttall
- Date:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
Credit: On the role of insects, arachnids and myriapods, as carriers in the spread of bacterial and parasitic diseases of man and animals. A critical and historical study / by George H. F. Nuttall. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![by fly-bites, the infectious agent “ being inoculated by insects which have previously been in contact with animals or carcasses of animals affected by the disease.” (Formerly anthracic meat was often sold in England. Of the 24 cases described by Budd, 20 were affected on the lip or in the vicinity of the mouth.) The greater the number of insects the greater the danger. This mode of infection might be very frequent in Burgundy and also in Siberia and Lapland, where insects “ of the mosquito tribe are the great pests of the traveler.” Budd states that in Lapland the popular belief prevailed, that malignant pustule was caused “ by a peculiar in- sect which suddenly descended from the air and as suddenly disap- peared.” 1 2 Davaine34 (1868) wrote: “ This infinitesimal quantity of blood which suf- fices to transmit the anthracic disease corresponds with the inoculation of malignant pustule through the proboscides of flies. It also gives us grounds for the belief that the infection of anthrax, so difficult to explain, might often be transmitted in the same way in herds.” He writes later39 (1870;: “ The role that flies play in the transmission of anthrax from animals to man has long been known.” Six years before, he had made observations on the spoiling of fruits and vegetables which, he says, he traced to flies that carried the spores of Penicillium and Mucor and infected the wounded places on apples, etc., the juice of which they sucked. If they are able to do this, and carry the pollen from flower to flower, they are surely able to carry a virus. Davaine goes on to state that anthrax is worst in hot summers, but that it may also occur in cold winters, not in the fields, but in hot stables, where flies may be found all the year round. He had never seen anthrax transmitted in stables and sheep-pens in Paris, and this he attributes to the absence of biting flies, which are so numerous in the country. The disease may be communicated at a distance, but this is limited to the movements of the flies which do not go far, etc., etc. Davaine gives many reasons which have been quite differently explained since Koch’s studies on the etiology of anthrax appeared. Davaine40 (1870, II) suggests that anthrax is not more rapidly communicated by flies for the reasons that the number of biting flies is variable, that the bacilli only appear in the blood of animals shortly before their death, that the biting flies do not suck from dead animals (?) and that these flies are not nocturnal. The bacilli appearing in the blood shortly before death makes it only possible for the flies to infect themselves during that time, and they would have no chance if the animal died during the night. Gross41 (1872) states that in a cattle epidemic which occurred in Louisiana in 1851 the “ green carrion fly ” communicated the disease in a number of cases to human subjects, but he gives no details.2 The green meat-fly (Lucilia Caesar [L.]) is as incapable of biting as the house-fly, so Gross was mistaken as to the character of the insect. Bollinger44 (1874) eon- 1 Budd says that in 1860 it was reported in the Times that 400 persons had lost their lives in Southern Russia and the province of Kiew from the sting of a venomous fly which came from Asia. It had made its ap- pearance in the same country 60-70 years before. Budd cites cases of rapid deaths following the bites of insects, but there is no proof that they were due to anthrax. 21 am indebted to Dr. J. H. Wright of Boston for kindly sending me this reference.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24764127_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
