FEEDS AND FEEDING 1797 



nation and throughout the experiment Stress was laid less on the nurnber 

 of cases dealt with than on a careful stud}^ of the subjects actually treated. 



It is pointed out that as in all other trials bearing on the propagation 

 of tuberculosis, vaccination must be accompanied b>' prophylatic measures 

 and must be carried out under strictly h3'gienic conditions. Consequenth' 

 it is extremely difhcult to distinguish between the effects of the vaccine 

 and those due to the improved conditions of life. The ex]Deriments did not 

 indicate that better results were obtained where vaccination was practised 

 than when the treatment was confined to prophylactic measures alone. A 

 special study was made of the efficiency of the Heymans vaccine. Though 

 it cannot be denied that \accines containing tubercle bacilli^ such as ' Hey- 

 mans' capsules", have shown a certain curative effect on tuberculous 

 subjects when used year after year, and have therefore tended to check 

 the spread of the disease in a herd; their action is quite uncertain and fre- 

 (juentl}' fails without any apparent reason. Except in very occasional cases, 

 no permanent cure has been obtained, symptoms of the di.sease reappearing 

 even in spite of ref)eated vaccinations. Further, in four herds which were 

 only slightly infected, three of which were being treated with Heymans' 

 vaccine and the other Antiphymatol, the result of vaccination was to make 

 a latent form of tuberculosis of the udder suddenly active. On the whole 

 it may be said that the curative effects of vaccination are not of an order 

 to make it a reliable means of checking tuberculosis in cattle. 



The trials were interrupted at the outbreak of the War. 



1295 - A New Parasite on Sheep Maggot Flies (i). — Frogg.'Mt \v. \y., in Queensland 



A '^ric lilt lira I Jminia!, Vol. VI, No. 3, pji. 177-179. Brisbane, September 1016. 



At the Government vSheep-fly Experiment Station, Wooloondool, 

 (near Ha}'), a new chalcid parasite {Chalis calliphorae) has been discovered 

 by T. McCarthy on blowfly maggots {Calliphora oceariac). It Consists of 

 a small black wasp, about the size of the common house fl}' and it la}'s a 

 single egg in each maggot before the latter seeks cover to pupate. The new 

 parasite is hardy, easy to breed and will stand a long journey by post in 

 a packet. 



Nasonia brevicormis, which is alread}^ know as a parasite of the blow- 

 flj' maggot, is more prolific than Chalcis calliphorm and equally hardy, 

 but it does not attack the maggots till after they have pupated. 



1296 - A New Unit for the Estimation of Food Values. — vSuciitingh, in journal fur pf.kds 



Landu'irtschaft, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 163-17'!. Berlin, October 19, 1916. ''^'i' i'i:i:DiNn 



Kellner's " starch value " is a unit adopted for estimating and com- 

 paring the value of different foods and is estimated by converting all other 

 substances in foods into terms of starch. This unit has been preferred to 

 the " calorie " or energy unit for the practical reason that it is nutch larger 

 and therefore simplifies calculations. The writer challenges the impracti- 

 caibility of the calorie and shows how it n:ay be modified for use. Kellner 

 always stated his starch values to a tenth of a kg. and w itli such a degree 



(i) See also 7^. 191.1, No. 1017; k. 1915, Nos. 401 and 1031. 



