On February 8th, 1923, I received three examples of living larvae of Musca domestica, from Dr James A. Stephen (Head of the Child Welfare Department of the Public Health Service, Aberdeen) with a statement that they “came from the bowel of a child, 4 months old, breast-fed, but having sugar on a teat.”

The migration, growth and development of Cyclocoelum oculeum Kossack, 1911 was studied in orally and parenterally exposed coots, Fulica americana (Gm.). Young flukes injected into the body cavity migrate to the sinuses from the body cavity via the air sacs and air passages. Young flukes were first found in the trachea on day 18 post-infection and in the sinuses on day 21. Migration was not synchronous and some flukes were found in the air sacs and trachea of parenterally exposed coots up to 45 days post-infection. Exponential growth and organogenesis began between days 9 and 12. Flukes in the sinuses were consistently larger than flukes of the same age in either the air sacs or trachea. Growth and organogenesis proceeded in the latter flukes but at a slower rate than those in the sinuses.

After i.v. injection of 305 × 103 microfilariae (mf) per animal (50 g) into naive jirds, 50·8% of them could be recovered at autopsy 15 min later. Of these, 65·8% were calculated to be in the peripheral circulating blood (PCB) and were completely intact; 18·6% were recovered by perfusion of the lungs and 13·6% from the liver. In both organs about half the mf were associated with adherent lymphocytes and neutrophils but a few were partly disintegrated. Only 2·6% were recovered from the kidneys and the spleen. In long-term injection experiments using the same inoculum size the autopsy was done 15 min and 1, 3 and 6 weeks post-injection (p.i.) of mf into naive jirds. Throughout the experimental period the density of mf remained more or less constant in the PCB, but 3 weeks p.i. the density in the lungs increased up to 14 times to that in the PCB, whereas in the liver it decreased at the same time to a density similar to that in the PCB. In patent animals with adult worms delivering mf these were distributed as follows: 34·7% were calculated to be in the PCB; 24·4% were obtained by perfusion from the lungs and 22·0% from the liver; the rest were found in the kidneys (16·6%) and spleen (2·3%). In the lungs and the liver about 5/6 were associated with adherent cells, partly disintegrated or as fragments. In view of the fact that very few mf become disintegrated immediately after i.v. injection and also from their extremely long sojourn in the PCB, a low turnover rate of mf is presumed. The limited fecundity of the female adults combined with the 20 weeks median circulation time of injected mf in the PCB supports this view.

Only a few years ago parasite immunology looked an unattractive subject better left to the dogged specialists. Parasites and hosts had been playing chess together for a million years, and there seemed little prospect of perturbing matters in favour of the host immune system. All that has changed, for three reasons. Firstly, we have learned how to grow at least some parasites in vitro, and prospects of doing so with others are encouraging. Secondly, progress in cellular immunology has revealed the sort of loopholes in the host defence system which parasites are likely to exploit: we are learning the questions which matter about parasites as antigens. Thirdly, and most importantly, molecular genetics is being brought to bear on parasites: we can now see a real, though long-term, prospect of manufacturing practicable vaccines through bio-engineering, and more immediately it gives us the tools needed to probe the host immune responses in the form of cloned antigens.

1. A technique is described for the laboratory breeding of Musca domestica nebulo Fabr. the Indian house-fly.

2. Methods are described for the transferring of the flies from cages to appliances for testing insecticides and for close observation.

I am very thankful to Mr E. B. Raj-der-ker who kindly donated the B. K. Raj-der-ker insect breeding station for our work. I owe a debt of gratitude to the authorities of the Indian Law Society, Poona, who have placed land and building facilities at our disposal for this research. Prof. S. P. Agharkar placed all the facilities of the Research Institute of the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science at my disposal, and Mr D. R. Ranade voluntarily supervised the breeding at Poona.

1. Two new species of Xiphidiocercariae have been described. These two forms have been designated as C. lühei and C. gopyjungi.

2. The flame-cell formula of C. lüheiis 2 × 3 × 3 = 18 and that of C. gopyjungi is 2 × 4 × 3 = 24.

3. It is shown that C. gopyjungi has the characters of both the subgroups Polyadena (Cort) and Daswan (Sewell), and the group Cercariae armatae is redefined.

4. Further, two new species of furcocercous cercariae have been described. They have been designated as C. ajmeri and C. anasagari.

5. It has been pointed out that the types of excretory systems as met with in C. ajmeri and C. anasagari are of extreme importance from the evolutionary point of view and fill in gaps in Sewell's (1930) evolutionary scheme.

6. The latter two species have been listed in their proper position in Miller's (1926) scheme of classification of the furcocercous cercariae.

In 1951 the laboratory examination of birds at Fair Isle Bird Observatory was extended to include the collection of ectoparasites. The fleas collected during the years 1951–55 have been recorded by Rothschild (1958).

Trypanosoma (Nannomonas) godfreyi sp. nov. from tsetse flies in The Gambia: biological and biochemical characterization

Parasitology109, 497–511

p. 499, para. 2, 104/ml to replace 104/μl

p. 501, para. 1, chromsomes to replace chromosome

p. 501, para. 2, 1/148 to replace 1/48

p. 504, para. 3, BAN 9 or KEN 7 to replace BAN 9 & KEN 7

Dr David Livingstone died on May 1st 1873. He was 60 years old and had spent much of the previous 30 years walking across large stretches of Southern Africa, exploring the terrain he hoped could provide new environments in which Europeans and Africans could cohabit on equal terms and bring prosperity to a part of the world he saw ravaged by the slave trade. Just days before he died, he wrote in his journal about the permanent stream of blood that he was emitting related to haemorrhoids and the acute intestinal pain that had left him incapable of walking. What actually killed Livingstone is unknown, yet the years spent exploring sub-Saharan Africa undoubtedly exposed him to a gamut of parasitic and other infectious diseases. Some of these we can be certain of. He wrote prolifically and described his encounters with malaria, relapsing fevers, parasitic helminths and more. His graphic writing allows us to explore his own encounters with tropical diseases and how European visitors to Africa considered them at this time. This paper outlines Livingstone's life and his contributions to understanding parasitic diseases.