BEDBUGS AND HEALTH

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 23, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 51.

BEDBUGS AND HEALTH.

DRS. BREMOND AND DE WEVERE have made a careful study of the relation of bedbugs to health, and have shown that this loathsome insect is a menace to health, not only by reason of the loss of sleep, and of blood, directly attributable to its ravages, but also through its becoming the means of transmitting the microbes of tuberculosis. One case is cited in which a communication of disease took place: A young man died of tuberculosis. Shortly afterward, his brother, who occupied his bed, became infected with general tuberculosis. The physician in attendance noticed that he bore marks of many attacks by bedbugs, and, being led to suspect this source of infection, examined the bugs, found that a large portion of them carried tubercular bacilli in their alimentary canals. Rabbits bitten by the same bugs contracted the disease and quickly died of it. An infusion made from the bugs by crushing them was also found to contain the microbes, and when injected into small animals, quickly gave rise to the disease.