HOWARD: CARRIAGE OF DISEASE BY INSECTS 221 



its destructive appearance in many p'aces during the present 

 great war. It was shown that at first the information put out 

 by the medical departments of the different armies was insuffi- 

 cient and in many cases illy based. Especial mention was made 

 of the publications issued in England, France, and Germany, 

 the extraordinarily detailed observations by Haase, made in 

 Germany in the camps of Russian prisoners, receiving special 

 consideration. He showed that more recently an intense in- 

 vestigation has been carried on in many places of all of the aspects 

 of the biology of the body-louse. He showed that in the current 

 number of the Bulletin of (he Pasteur Institute of Paris (December 

 15, 1916) reviews had been found of seventeen papers, under the 

 heading La Lutte Contre les Puces. One of these was written 

 by a Japanese, four by Englishmen, seven by Germans, one by a 

 Swiss, two by Frenchmen, one by a Russian, and one by an 

 Italian. He pointed out especially the very perfect proof ad- 

 duced in one of these articles of the transportation by wind of the 

 body-louse, a very important point to be considered in sanitary 

 measures. 



In concluding, the speaker referred to a manuscript table 

 drawn up by Mr. W. D. Pierce from the recent iterature, which 

 indicates that discoveries have been recorded of 226 different 

 disease organisms as carried by insects to man or animals; 

 that 87 organisms are known to be parasitic in insects but not 

 known to be transmitted, and that 282 species of insects are 

 recorded as causers or carriers of diseases of man or animals. 



The concluding paragraphs of the address are quoted : 



But now we must stop. There are many subjects in the field which 

 we have not touched. Tick paralysis, for example, is a most interesting 

 and novel subject. This disease occurs in Australia, Africa, and North 

 America. In Oregon thirteen cases have been found in the practice 

 of a single physician. The attachment of a tick brings about pro- 

 gressive paralysis involving motor but not sensory nerves. It seems a 

 unique malady. Hadwen and Nuttall, showing that it is not infectious 

 and that there is apparently an incubating period in the tick, suggest 

 a specific causative organism, but others hold to the theory of nerve 

 shock. 



Attention should also be called to the fact that, in spite of the host 

 of discoveries already well established, there is a dangerous tendency 



