Show FLIES CAKRY Y GERMS IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE government SURGEON tests made mad by dr wherry show that ordinary house insects will transmit leprous bacilli experiments with rats washington the highly import important a nt discovery has been made by william II 11 wherry surgeon ot of tile the marine hospital service that rats have leprosy and that the ordinary house fly after feasting upon poll a lead dead leprous rat will carry and deposit bacilli ot of the disease ease the conclusions reached are not definite that the fly fl transmits the bacilli of rat leprosy to human beings but the surgeon Is of tile the opinion that it Is quite possible for the fly to transmit human leprosy from a disca diseased aed to a non diseased person dr wherry in hii an important report quotes noted authorities in expressions of well founded belief that leprosy Is frequently acquired through flies files the insects gather upon the ulcers of lepers and later bite well persons pe isona in ono one instance a man mail who had been bitten by a fly in a leper settlement no ticen the first outbreak of the disease at the place where the fly had bitten him tho the inoculations of the fl fly are small but when made under tinder favorable circumstances carry leprous bacilli with them it Is believed tile the very careful examinations made by dr wherry at various places in fit california seems to confirm the theory that the fly after coming coining in ili contact with leprosy will deposit tho the bacilli of that disease for several days afterward in the last few months dr wherry examined rats at oakland cal for leprosy and found 20 infested with the disease some of them in the advanced stages one leper rat was found staggering in the streets of oakland blind and defenseless from the disease the disease among rats is believed to be transi transmitted it from ono one to the other by the bacilli lying just beneath the skin shin bloodsucking insects upon the rats carry the disease from the sick to the well just as it Is now admitted flies do in cases of typhoid fever dr wherry used the carcasses of leper rats to inoculate flies files tho the carcasses were exposed to flies in ili glass jars after many flies had been collected the jar was screened af after er feeding upon the carcasses the flies soon began to deposit specks upon the sides of tho the jars examination in almost every In stanco showed tho the presence of the bacilli af rat leprosy the rho surgeon found that the flies took up Imn immense lense numbers af pf of the bacilli from the carcasses when fed upon livers liver an and I 1 other organs organs of well rats no bacilli bacill were were found fo und dr wherry continued ills his important investigations with human lepers at the alameda county infirmary lie he captured two flies f from rom the ulcerated portion of the face of an advanced leper within an hour after the flies had been placed in vials the specks deposited by them hem showed bacilli of the dis ease tho the same as in the case of the rats rate for ganv houra afterward the r specks contained like bacilli the surgeon was even eren able to count the number af 0 f bacilli in one speck using the approved methods for that purpose in ono one spec speck there were 1160 1150 bacilli experiments upon guinea pigs with the bacilli failed to transmit the disease to these animals the conclusions of dr wherry are that there is no certain evidence that rat leprosy and the human disease are the same although it Is now well established that tho the plague Is transmitted almost wholly ly to human beings from rats rata coming in contact with food or clothing the taking up of the parasites by the fly does docs not necessarily mean that the fly also can carry the ho disease but the facts tire aie given for what they are worth it was was discovered at least that the parasites do not multiply in lies flies and that in 48 hours the insects are clear of the bacilli |