76 



Ceeel (E. H.). The Prevalence of Bubonic Plague and its Control. 



— Military Surgeon, Washington, D.C., xxxviii, no. 3, March 1916, 

 pp. 269-280. 



It is probable that the most potent factor that has operated towards 

 preventing any serious plague epidemic in the Philippines has been 

 the rat-proof construction of the native Filipino hut- — elevated three 

 or four feet, with the ground exposed and bare, bamboo floors and 

 single walls — which affords but little harbour for rats. The relative 

 freedom of Europe from plague, as compared with the epidemics of the 

 middle ages, may likewise be ascribed to the use on that continent 

 of rat-proof buildings of stone and solid masonry. Where plague is 

 endemic, the country concerned has a non-rat-proof type of buildings. 



MiTZMAiN (M. B.). Anopheles punctipennis, Say; its relation to the 

 transmission of malaria — Report of experimental data relative to 

 subtertian malarial iever.— Public Health Reports, Washington, 

 D.C., xxxi, no. 6, 11th February 1916, pp. 301-307. 



The possible role played by Anopheles punctipennis, Say, in the 

 United States in the transmission of subtertian malarial fevers is dealt 

 with. The only record of previous work on this subject, which is that 

 of Hirschberg in 1904, was not considered adequate to exclude this 

 Anopheline definitely as a carrier. Two hundred and nineteen specimens 

 of A. punctipennis were dissected from 3 to 38 days after multiple bites 

 on individuals whose blood contained varying numbers of subtertian 

 gametocytes. No infection was observed in the dissection of stomachs 

 and salivary glands. Two healthy individuals were bitten 91 and 180 

 times by specimens of A. punctipennis, 4 to 33 days after sucking blood 

 of a subtertian malaria carrier. In this experiment, and in another in 

 which 22 additional mosquitos of the same species were fed on another 

 healthy individual, A. punctipennis could not be incriminated in the 

 transmission of subtertian malaria. Control feedings with 74 speci- 

 mens of A. quadrimaculatus, Say, resulted in an infection of 13 "8 per 

 cent., and with three specimens of A. crucians, Wied., of 33*3 per cent. 

 In one case an individual developed subtertian malaria 11 days after 

 the single bite of an example of A. quadrimaculatus which had become 

 infected (as shown by dissection) 17 days previously. 



MiCHiE (H. C.) & Paesons (H. H.) Roeky Mountain Spotted (Tick) 

 Fever : Report of an Investigation in the Bitter Root Valley of 

 Montana. — Medical Record, New York, no. 2362, 12th February 

 1916, pp. 265-277. 



This paper is a resume of our knowledge of Kocky Mountain spotted 

 fever, and includes the results of eighteen months' research on this 

 disease, as it occurs in the Bitter Root Valley. It is stated that the 

 tick conveying the disease {Dermacentor) is a slow feeder, requiring 

 hours to become attached to an animal. Those exposed to the bites 

 of this tick should search their person at least three times a day ; if 

 this were done, there would be very few cases of spotted fever. A 

 bibhography of 43 works, referred to in the paper, is given. 



