Abattis

“ The proboscis acts as an inoculatory needle. No part of the life-history of the disease-causing organism must necessarily be carried on in the body of the fly; it is conveyed mechanically and without change from an infected to a healthy subject. The mouth parts can pick up the anthrax bacillus, and if the fly then alight upon a wounded{177} surface it will set up woolsorter’s disease. It, together with the flea, is accused of transmitting the plague bacillus, not only from man to man, but from rat to man. Flies are active agents in disseminating cholera ”

“ Their strong, sharp, piercing stylets enable them to pierce through the toughest skin of animals and through the thin clothing of man. The bite is very severe and irritating, and as the flies sometimes occur in great numbers the annoyance that they cause is often very great indeed. It has often been claimed that these flies as well as the stable-fly and others carry the anthrax bacillus on their proboscis from one animal to another, and although this may not have been definitely proven the evidence is strong enough to make a very good case against the accused. ”

“ Every one knows that bats are often literally covered with vermin. Among the many parasites which attack these little animals we find, besides the acaridæ, a Pteroptus of great agility, which seems, as it were, to swim among the fur, and looks like a little spider or a microscopic crab. There are but few bats on which we do not find some of these, and we have sometimes seen them in such abundance, that it was impossible to touch a single hair without disturbing them. This species is usually called Pteroptus vespertilionis. ”

“ The effect of their bite varies in different people. As a rule, the actual bite lasts for two or three minutes before the insect is gorged, and at first it is painless. But very soon the bitten area begins to swell and to become red, and at times a regular eruption ensues. The irritation may be allayed by washing with menthol or ammonia. Some people seem immune to the irritation ”

“ Surveillance and monitoring of the species is thus an instrumental activity to be carried out to prevent infestation of new areas, to assess the risk of arbovirus transmission and to optimize control activities. Ovitrap is the simplest and most widely used monitoring device for Ae. albopictus, as well as of other container-breeding species such as Aedes aegypti, the major vector of yellow fever, dengue and Zika [3] . ”

“ Paratyphoid germs quite often localize in the brain and cause abscess formation. Such abscesses cause a variety of symptoms, depending on which part of the brain is involved. Usually the bird shows loss of equilibrium. It may twist its head and neck about, show trembling of the head and neck, or other nervous symptoms. Such birds rarely recover.
(f) Occasionally the germ will localize in the eye. The inside of the eye turns white and sight is lost. Only rarely are both eyes involved. Such birds appear to be very ill and usually die in a short period of time. ”

“ Any tissue of the body may be the seat of an acute abscess, and there are many routes by which the bacteria may gain access to the affected area. For example: an abscess in the integument or subcutaneous cellular tissue usually results from infection by organisms which have entered through a wound or abrasion of the surface, or along the ducts of the skin; an abscess in the breast from organisms which have passed along the milk ducts opening on the nipple, or along the lymphatics which accompany these. ”

“ It is justifiable to infer from the absence of amœbæ from the pus constituting what might be called the body of the abscess, and their appearance in the pus coming from the walls of the abscess a few days later, that the habitat of the parasite is not so much the pus occupying the general abscess cavity as that immediately in contact with the wall and the breaking-down tissues themselves. ”

“ It is the life of the microbe inoculated under the skin which causes the abscess. The abscess, with the membrane which surrounds it, becomes for the little organism a sort of closed vessel, which it is even easy to tap without sacrificing the guinea-pig. The organism is mixed with the pus in a state of great purity, and although it is localised its virulence is extreme. When fowls are inoculated with the contents of the abscess they die rapidly, while the guinea-pig, which has furnished the virus, gets well without the least suffering. ”

“ Bat-fleas are commonly well supplied with combs. They usually have them on the abdomen, as well as the head, and the maximum number of eight combs is found in bat-fleas. Their structure and life-history agree generally with that of other fleas. They breed in hollow trees, caves, ruins, church-towers and lofts where bats hibernate or spend the hours of daylight. The larvæ feed on the droppings of the bats, and the mature insect, after emerging from the pupa case, [107] takes the first opportunity that comes of getting on to its host. Bats are seldom found to be much infested with fleas ”

“ Such abscesses, occurring in the limbs or scrotum, will discharge in due course, or may be opened; if properly treated surgically they may lead to no further trouble. Should they form in the thorax or abdomen, serious consequences and even death may ensue.
Probably, in certain instances, abscess forms at times independently of the death of the parasite; e.g. in varicose glands, in lymph scrotum, in elephantiasis. The death of the parent filaria is apt to be lost sight of as a possible cause of abscess in the subjects of filarial infection. ”

“ After opening spontaneously, the abscess closes again and heals, while the animal preserves its appetite and its appearance of health. These abscesses sometimes last several weeks. They are surrounded by a pyogenic membrane and filled with a creamy pus, in which the microbe swarms side by side with the pus globules. ”

“ The larvæ are hatched in the abdomen of the female, which is capable of distention. There it remains and, after assuming the pupa state, is deposited in the form of a short, white, egg-like object, without trace of articulation, and nearly as large as the abdomen of the female fly. Closely allied to these are the Bat-ticks (Nycteribidæ) , which possess neither wings nor balancers, and remind one strongly of spiders. ”

“ The effect of the bite varies greatly with different species and depends upon the susceptibility of the individual bitten. Some persons are driven almost frantic by the attacks of the pests when their companions seem almost unconscious of any inconvenience. Usually, irritation and some degree of inflammation appear shortly following the bite. Not infrequently a hardened wheal or even a nodule forms, and sometimes scratching leads to secondary infection and serious results.
The source of the poison is usually supposed to be the salivary glands of the insect. ”

“ Geographical Distribution.—Concisely one may state that the distribution of liver abscess is in relation to the existence of amoebic dysentery. It is particularly prevalent in those centers of amoebic infection where there are many white men having little knowledge of the conditions necessary for the maintenance of health in the tropics. ”

“ The description of the two diseases by Actuarius is so precise that we shall give it in lieu of all the others. The alphi, he says, are superficial, but sometimes extend in depth, so that the hairs appear of the same colour. The white species is tried as to the depth it has spread, by being pricked moderately with a needle; when blood flows though the needle has only penetrated the skin, the disease is curable, but if the discharge be milky it is incurable, inasmuch as the flesh is converted into the disease. ”

“ The ægilops is an apostematous swelling between the great canthus and the nose; and it is an affection difficult to cure, owing to the thinness of the bodies, and the fear of injuring the eye by sympathy. If, therefore, the abscess burst at the surface, we remove the whole protruberance as far as the bone; and if the fistulous sore incline towards the cheek, we must lay it all open, and if the bone be sound, we must scrape it; but if diseased, we must burn it with cauteries, applying to the eye a sponge soaked in cold water. ”

“ This discharge of the abscess contents may take place at a well-defined spot on the coronet, or it may ooze out at the junction of the wall with the skin. In appearance the discharged pus varies. When the softer structures only are attacked it is thick, and yellow or white in colour; when bone is involved it is ichorous; and when attacking the horn itself black or gray. It may or may not be extremely foetid, and often it is mingled with blood.
When evidence of a previous opening upon the coronet is plain, then it is not considered wise to attempt a paring of the sole. ”

“ In all cases of abscess discharging through the lung a careful register should be kept of three things —body temperature, daily amount and character of expectoration, and, once a week, the weight of the patient. If temperature keeps up, if the amount of pus continues the same or increases, or if the patient continues to lose weight, an attempt should be made at all risks to reach and drain the abscess from the outside. ”

“ The Battas attribute all serious sickness to the work of evil spirits, begu; and, as they know by experience that persons who go down from the highlands and remain for a considerable length of time on the coast or in the flat country are liable to be attacked by a virulent fever after their return, they have come to consider the begu of the sea, the begu laut, a particularly malignant and dangerous spirit. ”

“ A heavy-handed attendant should never be allowed to manipulate swellings in the right iliac fossa, nor in any other suspected region, for fear of destroying nature's defenses, and possibly rupturing an abscess, the contents of which will be emptied into the peritoneal cavity, causing peritonitis and death. ”

“ Within recent years the possibility of insects carrying the germ and in one way or another transmitting it to healthy individuals has been suggested and much discussed. As the lepræ bacilli are present in the skin and ulcers of leprous patients, insects sucking the blood or feeding on the sores could not help taking some of them into their body or becoming contaminated. These bacilli have been found at various times in the stomach or intestine of mosquitoes, fleas and bedbugs. So it is believed by some that these and other insects, such as lice and flies, may sometimes transmit the disease. ”

“ Inoculation of cultures on a susceptible horse produces the unquestionable phenomena of strangles, and solipeds alone take the disease casually. In white mice it produces abscess in the seat of puncture and in the adjacent lymph glands. If the action is delayed the abscess may be in lung, spleen, kidneys, liver, or other distant organ. Rabbits, Guinea pigs, pigeons, pigs and cattle are immune unless large doses are employed. ”

“ Kitasato and Yersin were both able to prove that soil and dust from infected houses contain the baciUus, that such bacillus is capable of inducing an attack of plague in the lower animals, and that flies fed on the dejecta or other bacillus-containing material, die, and in turn contain bacilli which are capable of setting up infection. Hankin claims that ants may carry the plague to and from rats, and so to the human being. It has already been mentioned that the organism rapidly loses its virulence when cultivated outside the body ”

“ These latter fly into the Indian huts at night and greatly annoy the inhabitants, who cannot get rid of them by fire or smoke, or any other means, until at the midnight hour they retire of their own accord. Not less troublesome are the leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostoma) , which attack both man and beast. This bat rubs up the skin of his victim, from which he sucks the blood. The domestic animals suffer greatly from the nocturnal attacks of these bats, and many are destroyed by the exhaustion consequent on the repeated blood-sucking. The blood drawn by the bat itself does not exceed a few ounces ”

“ It may be well to explain here that there is no more intensely painful or fiery bite known than the bite of the fire-ant or red ant of the Southwest and the tropics, named, in Zuñi, halo. Large pimples and blisters are raised by the bite, which is so venomous, moreover, that for the time being it poisons the blood and fills every vein of the body with burning sensations. ”

“ According to Keïsuke Tanaka, however, a connection certainly does exist, inasmuch as the akamushi, like Leptus, attacks persons to suck blood. If the mite is not removed, or if the spot attacked is injured by scratching, etc., a papule surrounded by a red area forms, and a pustule ensues; and finally a black scab covers the seat of injury. The lesion becomes the point of entrance of bacteria, especially a species of proteus which produces river fever. If the mites are carefully removed no general illness takes place. ”

“ Ulceration of these subcutaneous nodules is common.
In the glandular type the glands are enlarged and the lymph sinuses packed with the causative bacilli.
In rat leprosy it has been found that infection of other rats takes places as readily through slight abrasions of the skin as when material is injected subcutaneously.
The idea is that natural infection occurs by way of the skin and through the lymphatics. There is no evidence that insects play a part in transmission. ”