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7. In order to establish the mode of transmission of Kala-azar, Patton
carried out a number of experiments at Guindy by feeding lice and bed--
bugs on cases infected with this disease. As a result of his experiments
he wrote "Scientific Memoirs" on the development of Leishmania in the
bedbug. He also carried out a systematic study of the Genus Musca
describing a number of new species and undertook a complete revision of
this genus. He and Major Cragg carried out extensive researches on the
anatomy and habits of the blood-sucking Diptera and other insects. In
1913, they wrote their book on Medical Entomology, which was the first
book of its kind to be published in India. Major Cragg carried out very
interesting investigations and published a number of valuable papers on
the anatomy and bionomics of blood-sucking flies and of Cimex lectularius
and his untimely death has been a great loss to medical entomology.
8. Mr. Howlett (the Imperial Entomologist) started a systematic
study of the biting flies of India in 1906 and published a preliminary
account of them in 1907. Unfortunately his untimely death ended this
work before its completion.
9. Brunetti, while working at the Indian Museum, Calcutta, published
a catalogue of biting and other Diptera in 1911 and described a number of
new species of biting flies in India about the same time. The latter, in
collaboration with Col. Patton took up the study of the family Muscidae
and has published a number of useful papers on this subject.
10. In order to find out the vector of Kala-azar, Awati made a survey
of the biting insects of Assam in 1916, and published the results thereof
in the Indian Journal of Medical Research. He also published a number
of papers dealing with the bionomics of the "housefly".
11. The Kala-azar Commission, first under Col. S. R. Christophers
and later under Lt.-Col. H. E. Shortt, carried out exhaustive researches
on the transmission of this disease in Assam and published a large num-
ber of papers some of them dealing with the bionomics and anatomy of
P. argentipes.
12. Sandflies, as probable vectors of Kala-azar and of Oriental sore
came into great prominence nearly twenty years ago, as a result of which,
Lt.-Col. J. A. Sinton took up a taxonomic study of the Indian species of
this genus. He published a number of papers dealing with these insects,
describing a number of new species.
13. To supplement our knowledge of the biting flies of India, Puri
took up the taxonomic study of the Indian Simuliidae along with their
life history, and described a number of new species giving revised descrip-
tions of those already described by previous writers.
14. Whereas a great deal of work on taxonomy and anatomy of
different insects, connected with some human disease or the other, has
been done in India, comparatively little research has been carried out on
their bionomics in this country. During the last few years the lack of
knowledge of the bionomics of the Indian blood-sucking and other insects,
important to public health in India has been greatly felt all round.
Consequently, a certain amount of work on the bionomics of mosquitoes
has been carried out by various workers at the Ross Field Station for