72 PKESIDEXTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 



carried out in Algiers with flies sent from Biskra, for " clou de 

 Biskra " does not occur in Algiers, and hence natural infection 

 was excluded. 



Aragao, in Brazil, carried out similar experiments with the 

 local form of leishmaniasis, using dogs and the local sandfly, 

 Phlebotomus intermedius. Infections were produced in this case 

 also. 



Species of Phlebotomus are thus now definitely incriminated 

 as transmitters of Oriental sore, and preventive measures against 

 such can be instituted. 



Natural Herpetomoniasis of Vertebrates. 



That some vertebrates exceptionally show infections wit It 

 herpe to monad flagellates in natui'e is also known. Natural infec- 

 tions of mice with herpetomonads were recorded by Button and 

 Todd in 1903 and by Fantham and Porter in 1915. The infection 

 of pigeons with a herpetomonad was described by Ed. and Et. 

 Sei'gent in Algeria in 1907. Geckos similarly infected were 

 described by Sergent, Lemaire and Senevet in 1914, and bj'^ 

 Chatton and Blanc in Tunis in 1918. Marcel Leger found herpe- 

 tomonads in small lizards (Anolis sp.) in 1918 in Martinique. 

 Herpetomonads have also been described from the blood of fish, 

 infected Dentex argyrozona having been found at Cape Town ]u 

 1920 by Eantham and Porter.* Even in the human subject a her- 

 petomonad, at first called Hiemocystozoon hrasiliense, was found 

 by Franchini in 1913. 



Flagellates and Flagellosis of Plants. 



The occurrence of flagellates in the latex of a plant, namely. 

 Euphorbia pilulifera, was first reported in 1909 by David in 

 ]\Iauritius. Later, Lafont described the parasite from the lalex 

 of E'upJwrbia thymifolia and E. hypericifolia, naming it Lepto- 

 monas (HerpetoDwnas) davidi. Other workers have described the 

 organism from species of Euphorbia in Africa, and Donovan in 

 1909 found it in Madras in plants growing in tlio grounds of a 

 hospital. Francaf in 1914 gave a careful and detailed account of 

 the morphology of the parasite, and then described in detail its 

 effects on the host plants. The infected plants wilted, showed 

 yellowish foliage tliat dried at the base and readily fell. Infected 

 branches broke off easily or grew much more slowly than unin- 

 fected branches. 



Lafont had shown that the bug, Nysius ^uphorbuc, w'as able 

 to transmit the disease from plant to plant. FranQa at first was 

 imable to find the transmitters in his cases, but later incriminated 

 another bug, Stenocephalus agilis. Other workers have also 

 discovered other insect transmitters of the herpetomonad. Some 

 of the most recent work is by Lavei'an and Franchini, cither work- 

 ing alone or in collaboration, and some of their results now cited 

 were only published in May, 1922. 



* Journal of Parasitology, vii, pp. 16 — 22. 

 + Arch. f. Protistenkunde, xxxiv, pp. 108 — 132. 



