Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1914 — CLASS ANT WITH FLY [ARTICLE]

CLASS ANT WITH FLY

BOTH ENEMIES, OF THE HUMAN RACE, SAY SCIENTISTS. Peets Are Equally Active In CarryingDisease Germs—Experiments Panama Canal Zone Have Substantiated Theories. No suspicion until lately has arisenthat the industrious ant might upon occasion act as the transmitting agent of infection to man, says the London Lancet It was known that some species, euch as the white ant, Jias very destructive tendencies in certain part* of the tropics and that the bites of some large tropical ants caused * good deal of general disturbance, being attended with faintness and shivering and sometimes with temporary paralyeis. It was also known that some savage races used the dried bodies of ants, beaten into » paste, as an arrow poison, but It is only of lata that suggestion has been made that this insect might convey pathogen!* bacteria to man. The ant is commonly found in and around the dwellings of people residing in the tropics. It is indeed, a matter of difficulty to keep this Insect away from foodstuff* In such houses, and it is equally difficult to keep the ant away from human dejecta when these are not properly disposed of. So that it cannot ba doubted that the ant has the opportunity of carrying from infected excreta the specific organisms of disease to the food stored in human dwellings. Little or no experimental work, however, had been done to obtain proof that ants were capable of transmitting disease to man, but in 1912 Dr. L. B. to Ancon hospital in the Panama Can*! zone; undertook a series of experiments with a view of putting to the test whether or not the ant acted as a transmitting agent of such infections as enteric fever and bacillary dysentery. His investigations were * carried out with the large yellow ants which are found in and around the houses in the canal zone. He fed a number of these insects on bread soaked with cultures of bacillus typhosus for five days, killing and examining some of them at certain intervals, but in no instance was he able to recover the typhoid bacillus from the intestines of tlie ants. The experiment was carefully repeated with like negative results. He then tried to determine If the ant could carry the specific organisms on its legs or body in a purely mechanical way to human food. To this end a number of the insects were diropped into a broth culture of the typhoid bacillus and allowed afterward to crawl out and walk over dishes in such a way that their footprints could be “cultivated" •tor bacteria. The typhoid bacillus was easily found in every instance. This experiment was repeated several times, and in the majority of cases positive results were obtained.