I confess that these articles have been written in a certain spirit of gaiety. This is the reflex of the spirit of those who have gone to the Front and of my fellow countrymen in general. For more years than I care to remember, the spirit of Great Britain and of Ireland had been sombre, self-distrusting—we were till half a year ago far too ‘conscious of each other’s infirmities’; but with the outbreak of the War everything changed. Our nearest relatives, our dearest friends, are dead, or dying, or wounded, or prisoners; but we at home at once caught the spirit of those who have died or have suffered for us abroad, and we have kept and still keep a high heart. As Mrs. Aberdeen, the immortal ‘bedmaker’ at King’s College, Cambridge, said: But surely, Miss, the world being what it is, the longer one is able to laugh in it, the better.’ Mrs. Aberdeen spoke in times of Peace; but I feel that that indomitable old lady would have said the same in times of War.
These chapters first appeared in the columns of the British Medical Journal. I very gratefully thank the editor and the proprietors of that Journal for their permission to reprint them.
A. E. SHIPLEY.
Christ’s College Lodge,
Cambridge.
February 14, 1915.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | The Louse (Pediculus) | [1] |
| II. | The Bed-Bug (Cimex lectularius) | [23] |
| III. | The Flea (Pulex irritans) | [35] |
| IV. | The Flour-Moth (Ephestia kühniella) | [46] |
| V. | Flies: The House-Fly (Musca domestica) | [57] |
| VI. | Flies: The Blue-Bottle (Calliphora erythrocephala) AND OTHERS | [74] |
| VII. | Mites: The Harvest-Mite (Trombidium) | [87] |
| VIII. | Mites: Endo-Parasitic Mites (Demodex, Sarcoptes) | [97] |
| IX. | Ticks: Argasidae, Ixodidae | [112] |
| X. | Leeches: The Medicinal Leech (Hirudo medicinalis) | [123] |
| XI. | Leeches: The Medicinal Leech (continued) | [136] |
| XII. | Leeches: Limnatis nilotica, Haemadipsa zeylanica | [149] |
| Index | [163] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| FIG. | PAGE | |
| Photograph of enlarged model of the house-fly (Musca domestica) | [Frontispiece] | |
| 1. | Pediculus vestimenti | [2] |
| 2. | Pediculus vestimenti (dorsal and ventral views) | [6] |
| 3. | Cimex lectularius (male) | [24] |
| 4. | Egg of Cimex lectularius | [28] |
| 5. | Newly hatched young of Cimex lectularius | [29] |
| 6. | Pulex irritans (female) | [36] |
| 7. | Larva of Pulex irritans | [39] |
| 8. | Pupa of flea | [41] |
| 9. | Ceratophyllus gallinulae (male and female) | [44] |
| 10. | Ephestia kühniella. Moth-infested biscuit | [47] |
| 11. | Ephestia kühniella | [49] |
| 12. | Ephestia kühniella (larva and pupa) | [50] |
| 13. | Corcyra cephalonica. Moth-infested biscuit | [51] |
| 14. | Eggs of Musca domestica | [59] |
| 15. | Eggs of M. domestica | [60] |
| 16. | Abdomen of female house-fly, showing the extended ovipositor | [61] |
| 17. | Mature larva of M. domestica | [62] |
| 18. | ‘Nymph’ of M. domestica dissected out of pupal-case about thirty hours after pupation | [63] |
| 19. | Pupal-case or puparium of M. domestica from which the imago has emerged | [64] |
| 20. | M. domestica in the act of regurgitating food | [65] |
| 21. | Foot of a fly, showing hairs bearing bacteria | [69] |
| 22. | Chart illustrating the relation of the numerical abundance of house-flies to summer diarrhoea in the city of Manchester in 1904 | [71] |
| 23. | Latrine-fly (Fannia scalaris) | [75] |
| 24. | Larva of F. canicularis | [76] |
| 25. | Blow-fly or blue-bottle (Calliphora erythrocephala) | [77] |
| 26. | Green-bottle (Lucilia caesar) | [79] |
| 27. | Flesh-fly (Sarcophaga carnaria) | [80] |
| 28. | Side view of blow-fly (Calliphora erythrocephala) | [81] |
| 29. | Trombidium holosericeum (female) | [89] |
| 30. | Leptus autumnalis = larva of Trombidium holosericeum | [90] |
| 31. | Leptus autumnalis, with the so-called proboscis | [92] |
| 32. | Leptus autumnalis | [93] |
| 33. | Pediculoides ventricosus (male and female) | [96] |
| 34. | Demodex in hair-follicle of dog. Demodex folliculorum | [98] |
| 35. | Sarcoptes scabiei (female) | [100] |
| 36. | Sarcoptes scabiei (male) | [101] |
| 37. | One of the legs of Sarcoptes scabiei showing the stalked sucker and the curious ‘cross-gartering.’ | [102] |
| 38. | A diagrammatic view of the tunnel made by the female of Sarcoptes scabiei, with the eggs she has laid behind her as she burrows deeper and deeper | [104] |
| 39. | A female Sarcoptes scabiei, with four eggs in different stages of development | [105] |
| 40. | Nephrophages sanguinarius (male and female) | [110] |
| 41. | Evolution of Argas persicus | [113] |
| 42. | Ixodes ricinus (mouth-parts of the female) | [114] |
| 43. | Argas reflexus (female) | [115] |
| 44. | Ornithodorus moubata (an unfed female) | [116] |
| 45. | Ornithodorus moubata (female) | [117] |
| 46. | Ixodes ricinus (male and female) | [118] |
| 47. | Ixodiphagus caucurtei laying eggs in the nymph of Ixodes ricinus | [120] |
| 48. | Hirudo medicinalis | [124] |
| 49. | View of the internal organs of Hirudo medicinalis | [126] |
| 50. | Head of a leech (Hirudo medicinalis) | [130] |
| 51. | Hirudo medicinalis | [133] |
| 52. | Cocoon of the medicinal leech | [142] |
| 53. | A Nephelis forming its cocoon and withdrawing from it | [143] |
| 54. | Cocoons of Nephelis | [144] |
| 55. | A leech-farm in the south of France | [145] |
| 56. | Glossosiphonia heteroclita, with eggs and emerging embryos | [146] |
| 57. | Helobdella stagnalis, with adhering young | [147] |
| 58. | Limnatis nilotica | [150] |
| 59. | Anterior sucker of Hirudo medicinalis | [152] |
| 60. | The Japanese variety of Haemadipsa zeylanica | [156] |
| 61. | Haemadipsa zeylanica (from above) | [157] |
| 62. | Haemadipsa zeylanica (head) | [158] |
| 63. | Haemadipsa zeylanica (land-leeches), on the earth | [159] |
THE