OCR Text |
Show iiounced by Dr. L. W. Samhon. lee- ' lu rer at tbe Ix'ndon School of Tropical Tropi-cal Diseases, and member of tho "field-committee' whlchi Is now engaged en-gaged in making a study of pellagra In Italy. Dr. Samhon. it will be remembered, Is tho roan who helped so importantly to prove tbe case airalnst tho malaria mosquito by his clnsslc experiments in the. Roman campagna where be, with one companion, spent several weeks in a screened hut on tho marshes, merely taking the precaution precau-tion not to go out at nlKht. Inas-much Inas-much as the malaria-carrying mosquitoes mos-quitoes fly only at night, they suffered suf-fered not at all. through dwelling in one of tho worst known breeding places of the abominable Insects. Accordingly, authority of the highest high-est kind attaches to Dr. Sambon's announcement that pellagra In Italy owes Its distribution to a midge, or black fly. nearly related to our own "buffalo gnat." Just as malaria could not exist without the Anopheles mosquito, mos-quito, so likewise does pellagra a much more terrible disease, resembling resembl-ing leprosy depend on this black fly for Its transmission and dissemination dissemina-tion amonc mankind. Such being tho case, it will bo asked, how docs it happen that this dreadful malady, unknown until recently re-cently In tho United States, has suddenly sud-denly broken out In manv parts of our own country, spreading with alarming rapidity, and threatening lo become a plague? Tbe reason why it Is supposed is that the Italians, who have been swarming into this country In such multitudes within the last ten years have brought the disease with them from Italv, where it has long been rife. They have Infected our buffalo buf-falo gnats, which, 'thereupon bi'ine tcalthy persons, have communicated tho malady to them. It Is Just like the case of the mosquito, which having hav-ing sucked the blood of a malaria sufferer, suf-ferer, attacks somebody else and introduces in-troduces the malaria germ into the latter's blood. Technical World PELLAGRA BROUGHT BY THE ITALIANS Tcllagra carried by an insect! It Is one of the most important of recent re-cent scientific discoveries that Is an- i |