64 



Bacot (A.). On the Probable Identity of Rickettsia pediaili with 

 Rickettsia quintana. — Brit. Med. Jl., London, no. 3135, 29th 

 January 1921, pp. 156-157, 1 chart. 



During observations made in Warsaw in 1920, lice were found to 

 be infected with Rickettsia bodies indistinguishable from R. quintana. 

 The author contracted trench fever in the course of these investiga- 

 tions, although the disease was supposed to be non-existent in that 

 region. The history of the illness is described. Lice that had pre- 

 viously proved free of Rickettsia infection, after being fed on the 

 author showed the presence of R. quintana. It was found that 

 trench-fever patients are capable of infecting lice with R. quintana 

 for at least three months after cessation of febrile attacks or other 

 obvious symptoms of the disease. 



Pierce (W. D.) & others. Sanitary Entomology. — Boston. Mass., The 

 Gorham Press, 1921, xxvi + 518 pp., 28 plates, 88 figs. [Price 

 $10.00.] 



The field covered by the series of essays, written up from lectures, 

 that comprise this useful work is more extended than that of an 

 ordinary textbook. Disease transmission by insects is treated in its 

 widest sense, so that, for example, non-blood-sucking flies are regarded 

 as potential carriers of any bacterial or other disease in which the 

 organism ma}^ be reached b}' the fly in any possible way. From the 

 same point of view, the role that may belong to insects as intermediate 

 hosts of certain parasitic worms, whose life-history is in many cases 

 not fully known, is considered in detail. 



As a result of this method of regarding the subject, many unworked 

 or insufficiently worked problems are indicated and possible lines of 

 research suggested. In the past a large part of the study of insect 

 transmission of disease has aimed at proving or denying transmission by 

 means of the bite of the insect, whereas the evidence here presented 

 shows that a large proportion of the cases of insect transmission are not 

 by the bite, but rather through contamination by the faeces. It may 

 therefore be considered that many of the conclusions that insects are not 

 involved in the transmission of certain diseases are unwarranted, and 

 that such cases should be studied anew and more scientifically. 



The book is not, however, only a stimulus to research, but also 

 effectively covers the more obvious aspects of medical entomology, 

 while insect diseases in animals also receive notice. In conclusion 

 the information given is condensed into a valuable reference 

 table showing the disease, the organism causing it, and how it is, 

 or may be, transmitted b}' the insects concerned. 



Froggatt (J. L.). A Study oi the External Breathing-apparatus of 

 the Larvae of some Muscoid Flies. — Proc. Linn. Sac. N.S.W.. 

 Sydney, xliii, pt. 3, August-October 1918, pp. 658-667, 1 plate. 



Dead or rotten larvae of flies may be identified by the spiracles, 

 especially the posterior ones. Descriptions are given of those found 

 in Anastellorhina augur, Pollenia stygia, Chrysomyia (Pycnosoma) 

 rufifacies. C. varipes, Lucilia scricata and Ophyra nigra. The spiracles 



