LOUSE BORNE DISEASES 291 



termined. The almost irresistible desire to scratch a louse bite should 

 make louse transmission of any organism taken up from the blood, which 

 can successfully pass through the lice in their feces, a very easy matter. 

 In case of typhoid fever, if there is transmission it might be through soil- 

 ing fingers on crushed lice. This consideration leads me to suggest that 

 some one take up the question of louse transmission of gonorrhoea, 

 syphilis, smallpox, and other diseases, giving special attention to inocu- 

 lation of infected feces. 



'2. Diseases of Unknown or Uncertain Origin 



BERI-BERI.— Manson (1909) has advanced the hypothesis that lice 

 may possibly transmit beri-beri or polyneuritis, a disease whose cause is 

 undetermined. Bradford, Bashford, and Wilson (1919) have found a 

 filterable virus in acute infective polyneuritis. Daniels conducted an 

 unsuccessful attempt in transmitting beri-beri from man to an orang- 

 outang by means of lice, due probably to the inability of the lice to live 

 on the host. (Castellani and Chalmers, p. 1216.) He did not attempt 

 inoculation of the feces, apparently expecting to convey the disease by the 

 louse bite. The majority of writers treat beri-beri as a nutritional dis- 

 ease due to absence of vitamines. 



TYPHUS FEVER.— Acting on the suggestion of Sergent and Foley 

 in Algeria, the transmission of typhus fever by the louse was first proven 

 by Nicolle, Comte, and Conseil (1909) working in Tunis. They success- 

 fully transmitted typhus from monkey to monkey by means of tlie bites of 

 infected lice (^Pediculus corporis) that had fed on a typhus fever patient 

 1-7 days previously. A few months later Ricketts and Wilder (1910) 

 working independently in Mexico reported successful infection of monkeys 

 that were bitten by Pedicuhis corporis previously fed on typhus patients, 

 and they also infected monkeys by placing the gut contents of such lice on 

 scarified skin, three days after the lice had fed upon a typhus monkey. 

 Shortly thereafter Ricketts succumbed to an attack of t^'phus. 



Further proofs of transmission of typhus fever by louse bites were 

 published by Wilder (1911), Goldberger (1912), and Anderson and Gold- 

 berger (1912); proofs of transmission by inoculation of crushed lice 

 were published by Wilder (1911), Goldberger (1912), Prowazek (1913) 

 and Nicolle, Blanc, and Conseil (1914). The last named authors proved 

 that the feces of lice when inoculated were infective at least 6 days after 

 the lice had fed on a typhus fever patient. 



Wilder (1911), Sergent, Foley, and Vialatte (1914) and Da Rocha- 

 Lima (1916) claim that typhus fever is hereditarily transmitted by lice, 

 but Anderson and Goldberger (1912) and Nicolle, Blanc, and Conseil 

 (1914) hold that there is no proof of hereditary transmission. 



