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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![cover-glass specimens from the fluid squeezed from the proboscis and anus, finding cocci and bacilli (not stated which kind) in all of them. He also fed flies with nutriment containing the Bacillus prodigiosus and B. foetidus, observing that these bacteria appeared in the excreta alive and uninjured. His experiments, of course, do not prove anything for hog erysipelas. He reasons that, be- cause a role has been attributed to flies in anthrax, they probably play a role here. He refers to the observations of Grassi, quoted elsewhere. Nuttalf0 (1898) allowed bed-bugs to suck the blood of mice dying of mouse-septicemia, and at stated intervals inoculated mice with their contents. Mice thus treated died in 78 to 79 hours when inoculated with the contents of bugs removed 24 hours after they had infected themselves. After 46 to 72 hours had elapsed the mice died in 96 to 99 hours. One survived after being inoculated with the contents of two bugs after 96 hours. Two mice died in 112 to 116 hours when inoculated with the contents of 4 and 3 bugs respectively after an interval of 120 to 144 hours. One mouse inoculated with the contents of four bugs after 240 hours survived. It is evident from this that the bacilli die off gradually in the bug’s body. Five fleas removed from a gray mouse dead of the disease were transferred to a healthy animal. The latter remained healthy. Ho experiments with house-flies or biting flies have yet been made. Five mice bitten by 42 infected bugs remained healthy. Chicken-Choleka. That insects may play a role in the spread of this affection has, I believe, not been stated. It having been claimed that bed-bugs served as active agents in the spread of plague, HuttalT’ (1898) included tins disease in his experiments on other septicemic affec- tions. (According to Railliet [Zool. med. et agricole, Paris, 1886, p. 578] Cimex ledularius attacks brooding hens so as to force them sometimes to leave their eggs. Railliet believes, but in this he does not agree with other authors, that it is the same species which is found in swallows’ nests, pigeon-houses and places where bats congregate.) Huttall allowed 5 mice to be bitten by 66 infected bugs (see the methods described under anthrax); all of the mice remained alive. Cultures made from bugs after an interval](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24764127_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
