58 



concerned and removing and isolating cases as soon as possible. One 

 sanitary officer was usually sufficient for areas containing about 1,300 

 inhabitants. This system requires men and transport facilities^ both 

 of which are available in an army. 



DA RocHA-LiMA (H,). Kllnlk und Aetiologie des sogen. " Wolhy- 

 nischen Fiebers " (Werner-Hissche Krankheit). II. Ergebnis der 

 atiologischen Untersuchungen und deren Beziehungen zur Fleck- 

 fieberforschung. [The Clinical Aspects and Aetiology of the so- 

 called " Volhynian Fever " (Hiss-Werner's Disease). II. The 

 Result of the aetiological Investigations and their Relation to the 

 Investigation of Typhus.] — Miinchener Med. Wochenschr., Munich, 

 Ixiv, no. 44, 30th October 1917, pp. 1422-1426, 3 figs. 



The examination of several thousand sections of lice shows that 

 Rickettsia jprowazeki (which occurs exclusively in lice infected with 

 typhus) is the sole micro-organism of this type that regularly develops 

 as a parasite in the cells of the stomach and small intestine of the 

 louse. Many other similar micro-organisms from sick and healthy 

 persons are found in lice, and the only present means of differentiating 

 between them and R. prowazeki lies in this biological character of cell- 

 parasitism. As this last is ascertainable only by means of suitable 

 dissections, no reliance can be placed in results obtained from smears. 

 Lice from Volhynian fever patients (and sometimes from other sick 

 persons and from healthy ones) may contain in the stomach gut a 

 micro-organism very similar to R. prowazeki ; this the author calls 

 R. pediculi. R. pedicidi chiefly differs from R. fwivazeki by developing, 

 not in the epithelial cells, but on them and in the lumen of the stomach, 

 R. pediculi cannot be held to cause Volhynian fever unless a number 

 of hypotheses are taken into account. It would appear that blood 

 examination with the technical means at present available does not 

 provide a sure method of determining the causative agent of typhus. 

 The Volhynian virus is present in the blood not only during the fever 

 stage but also long after, so that the dissemination of the disease by 

 healthy carriers must be reckoned with. 



KiRSCHBAUM ( — ). Zur Epidemiologie der Malaria. — Miinchener Med. 

 Wochenschr., Munich, Ixiv, no. 43, 23rd October 1917, 

 pp. 1405-1408. 



This is an account of an epidemic of benign tertian malaria among 

 German troops in north-western Russia which began in February and 

 March 1916 amid ice and snow. It rose very rapidly to the culminating 

 point in May and then fell somewhat less rapidly through June, July 

 and August, reaching its end in October. The expected revival in 

 August and September did not occur, and this abnormahty is attributed 

 to the inclement weather impeding the development of the parasites 

 in the mosquitos, while it may also have been unfavourable to the 

 mosquitos themselves. Except in July the temperature curve was 

 below 60° F. and only once in July did it reach 68° F. The outbreak 

 is held to be due to ii]iections of the s umm er of 1915 that had remained 

 latent and not to direct infections from mosquitos that had hibernated. 

 The latent period therefore lasted at least 6 months (February 1917) 



