PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
T | T ། ; T
Reference :-
mmmc.o
885/25
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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The Board of Education, however, again desires that the continuity of the ordinary course given in the School shall not be broken, and has renewed its grant. The work of the School has, therefore, been maintained uninterruptedly.
During the long vacation the Committee of the School has taken in hand the enlargement and reorganization of the museum, which has now been equipped in the most modern method by a Sub-Committee of the teachers acting in co-operation with Dr. W. G. Ridewood of the British Museum. Structural alterations have been effected, and it is hoped that all necessary show cases, etc., will be installed and the exhibits set up during the early part of the coming year.
The published statement of the School accounts for the year 1915 was sub- mitted with the last report; it shows a surplus of £934.
The expenditure during the current year has remained constant, while the receipts will show a further falling off in consequence of the reduction in the number of students. Part of the expense connected with the reconstruction of the museum will go into this year's accounts, and will absorb the greater part of It is hoped and believed, however, that the any credit balance that may accrue. year will close without a deficit.
SIR,
I have, &c.,
P. MICHELLI,
Secretary,
Enclosure 1 in No. 2.
REPORT OF THE HELMINTHOLOGIST.
103, Corringham Road, Golders Green, N.W.,
30th October, 1916.
I HAVE the honour to present my customary report, as Helminthologist to the London School of Tropical Medicine, for the past year.
My time has been almost entirely occupied with investigations on the mode of spread and prevention of trematode infections, especially bilharziasis, in Egypt. From November, 1915, until February, 1916, I was chiefly concerned with the problem of the relation of urinary and intestinal types of bilharzial infection. It was conclusively shown that, although occasionally clinical manifestations of the same infection, these lesions are usually due to different species of parasites which are spread by different species of fresh-water snails.
Some investigations were also made on the part played by fresh-water fish in the spread of trematode infections, and two forms parasitic in common animals in Cairo were successfully traced to, and transmitted experimentally from, food fishes obtained from the Nile.
In February I was about to return home, when Sir W. Babtie requested me to remain for some time further as Consulting Helminthologist to the forces in Egypt, to advise on preventive measures, and to visit the various outlying posts As the various measures in Egypt. I was engaged on this work until May. recommended had by then been put into force I returned to England.
During the remainder of the session I completed
brought up to date an account of the whole research. These two papers were published during the summer vacation, and copies are now submitted.
molluscs collected during the inquiry, and revised and report on the fresh-water
A paper dealing with the comparative anatomy of the adult worms which give rise to terminal and to lateral spined eggs was partly prepared, but for the complete elucidation of the matter it was found desirable to obtain material from the West Indies or South America also.
As my services were not, for the time being, required by the military authori- ties, I proposed to the Committee of the London School of Tropical Medicine that I should devote my vacation to the investigations which seemed necessary still to bring the work to full fruition.
A sub-committee was authorized to arrange with me to carry out the proposed expedition; but no further steps have been taken in the matter apparently.
As the School museum has been reorganized to include a section of medical zoology the Helminthological Department has contributed a set of parasitic worms, illustrating the lectures given at the School. It is proposed to exhibit also a series illustrating the life cycles of the more important forms.
I have, &c.,
R. T. LEIPER.
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Enclosure 2 in No. 2.
REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST for the HALF-YEAR ENDING 31ST OCTOBER, 1916.
London School of Tropical Medicine (University of London),
Royal Albert Dock, E., 1st November, 1916.
DURING the period under report I have conducted the usual classes in medical entomology and snake toxicology. I have also conducted two courses in protozoology, the collection and preparation of material for which has occupied a good deal of time. A considerable amount of time has also been devoted to the preliminary arrangements for the renovation and reorganization of the School
museum.
*
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Little has been done in the way of entomological research. The experiments, referred to in two earlier reports, with Stegomyia fasciata have been concluded. Eggs of this species deposited in the laboratory, both from females bred from imported eggs and from females bred from eggs deposited in the laboratory last summer, failed to hatch after being kept under fairly "natural conditions during the winter. That the eggs were originally fertile is proved by the fact that those that were left in the water last summer did hatch only those that were removed from the water and kept in a dry state during the winter failed to hatch in the following spring. It was hardly to be expected that the eggs of this species would remain alive through the British winter; but, at any rate, the observations made here in the course of the last eighteen months confirm the generally accepted belief that even if Stegomyia fasciata, or its eggs, happened to be brought into this country in ships, the species would not be likely to survive here, even though the imported individuals could, if they arrived at the proper season, thrive and freely propagate their kind for a few months of summer and autumn.
From Hong Kong Captain F. H. Stewart, I.M.S., has sent us an account, with plenty of preserved material, of a case of intestinal myiasis, due chiefly-though not entirely to Apiochata ferruginea. Captain Stewart's observations, which were close and exact, seem to confirm the opinion-which was already supported by a good deal of circumstantial evidence that the larvae of this species can not only thrive but can complete their metamorphoses in the human intestine. Captain Stewart's patient was under observation for many months, and during that time all stages of the fly, from young larva to adult fly, were vomited. That the adult flies were dead when vomited does not justify the inference that they had not been alive in the intestine before they came in contact with the active secretions of the duodenum and stomach. On the other hand, the fact that some empty pupal cases and a considerable number of quite young larvæ were vomited at a late stage in the history of the case, several months after some full-grown larvæ had been brought up, suggests that a second generation may have been produced in the patient's intestine. Among the material vomited along with Apiocheta were some Sarco- phege maggots that, under Captain Stewart's observation, pupated and changed into adults, and also some pupa of Drosophile.
causes
"
Dr. J. Pollard, of the West African Medical Service, has contributed some larvæ of a Cicindeted beetle, possibly belonging to the genus Megacephala. These larvæ, which are known in Nigeria as furo, are said to inflict à bite which serious consequences. Dr. Pollard has preserved these particular specimens with special care, in order that the soft parts of the enormously developed gular region of the head may be examined histologically here..
That sagacious and vigilant collector, Dr. George Spurrell, has brought us further supplies of valuable and useful material from tropical South America, including several kinds of blood-sucking insects that are new to our collection.
Dr. W. G. Watt, Medical Officer of Health at Coomassie, has sent us a large number of larvæ of several species of mosquitoes that will be of much use for our class work.
From the same point of view we are under particular obligation to Sir Patrick Manson for a lot of specimens of Chrysops relicta; to Dr. W. E. Masters for some flies from the Belgian Congo; and to Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Tall Walsh, I.M.S. (retired), for some British Arthropoda.
The reserve and study collections belonging to this Department are in good order, and from the fresh insect-material collected during the summer some nice series of certain Flagellata and Eregarinida that inhabit the intestine of various Arthropoda have been prepared and added to the protozoological collection.
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