852 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.36 



idiophorous, not basidiophorous, and are not connected with the Auricularieae 

 or the Tremellinefe. 



[Hevea dieback in Sumatra], J. G. C. Vbiens (Meded. Adv. Alg. Ver. Rub- 

 berplanters Oostkust Sumatra, No. 2 {1915), pp. 19-21; abs. in Internat. Inst. 

 Agr. [Rome'\, Mo. Bui. Agr. Intel, and Plant Diseases, 6 (1915), No. 12, pp. 

 1706, 1707). — ^The serious diseases of Hevea in Sumatra are said to be those 

 due to Fames semitostus, Phytophthora faberi, Corticium salmonicolor, Hy- 

 menochcEte noxia, and Thyridaria tarda (Botryodiplodia theohromw). The 

 last named fungus is the cause of a dieback which is described. Tlie trees 

 may recover if the weather is dry and favorable, but attack on the trunk is 

 liable to be followed by the death of the tree and the spread of the disease to 

 neighboring trees. The disease is said to be controllable by spreading tar on 

 the infected spots and, as soon as this is dry, cutting out and burning the 

 tarred spots. 



ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY— ENTOMOLOGY. 



A history of British mammals, G. E. H. Babrett-Hamilton and M. A. C. 

 HiNTON (London: Gurney & Jackson, 1916, vol. 2, pt. 19, pp. 601-648, pis. 2, figs. 

 4 ) . — This continuation of the Muridse ( E. S. R., 35, p. 656 ) deals with the genus 

 Epimys, including the tree or roof rat (E. rattus frugivorus) and the brown or 

 common rat (E. norvegicus) ; and the genus Mus, including the house mouse 

 (M. musculus). 



Gopher destruction, J. H. Grisdale (Canada Expt. Farms Bui. SI, 2. ser. 

 (1916), pp. 8, figs. 4)- — This describes methods of combating gophers, which 

 are among the worst enemies of the farmer on the prairies in the Provinces 

 of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. 



The control of voles in Italy, A. Splendore (Atti R. Accad. Uncei, Rend. 

 CI. Set. Fis., Mat. e Nat., 5. ser., 25 (1916), II, Nos. 1, pp. 46-49; 6, pp. 218-224; 

 12, pp. 516-521; abs. in Nature [London], 98 (1916), No. 2461, p. 538).— This 

 is a report of work carried out at the entomological laboratory of the Uni- 

 versity of Rome with a view to finding some satisfactory method of con- 

 trolling voles (Pitymys savi), an outbreak of which in the Province of Foggia 

 in Apulia during the summer resulted in an almost entire destruction of the 

 grain crop. 



A spontaneous outbreak of a disease among voles sent the author for study 

 resulted in the death of a number en route, while the remainder died a few days 

 after their arrival in Rome. In all of these voles a coccobacillus was present in 

 the blood, the internal organs, and the lymphatic glands. There v?as a re- 

 markably high mortality among voles in the vicinity of Cerignola. The epi- 

 zootic, which spread extensively, presented the features of a septicemia, the 

 internal organs being congested, especially the spleen and liver, which were 

 always enlarged. A comparison of the coccobacillus with Bacillus typhi murium 

 and the typhi-coli group shows it to represent a new species which he de- 

 scribes as Bacterium pitymysi. 



Voles obtained from a locality where the epizootic was not known to occur 

 died in less than 24 hours after subcutaneous inoculation with an emulsion of 

 the spleen or liver of an infected vole, while others fed with infected material 

 died in three or four days. When dead or infecte<i vole« were placed among 

 healthy ones, the latter developed the disease In a few days, and it was also 

 pathogenic for mice, rats, and rabbits. 



The organism was isolated from the Intestine of fleas found on an infected 

 vole, and the injection into a healthy vole of the intestinal contents of three 

 such fleas resulted in its death in less than 24 hours. Another healthy vole 

 placed in a vessel with three vole fleas died three days later. Both voles were 



