229 



proper provisions for drainage (in a sanitary sense) behind embankments 

 etc. ; the replacing of culverts to true gradient, where necessary ; 

 drainage or other provision for disposal of overflow waters at tanks 

 and towers ; clearing of weeds and refuse at regular intervals from 

 right-of-way ditches (supplemented by oihng if necessary) especially 

 in, and adjacent to, settlements ; and also the consideration of 

 sanitary features in connection with new construction works. 



Work of the medical and sanitary departments should include : — ■ 

 The encouragement of, and participation in, intensive mosquito- 

 control campaigns in the communities through which railroads pass ; 

 careful and thorough treatment of actual cases of malaria among 

 employees, so as to prevent the development of chronic cases and 

 relapses as far as possible ; statistical observations through morbidity 

 reports, furnishing data indispensable for accurate guidance in the 

 estabhshment of prophylactic measures ; systematic educational 

 work ; prevention of malaria among transfer gangs by the use of 

 screens for the windoAvs, doors and other apertures of their sleeping 

 cars, supplemented, if necessary, by the use of prophylactic quinine ; 

 the thorough treatment of active cases of malaria before returning 

 them to their units ; the intensive control of mosquito production 

 in communities of shop mechanics, repair men and car builders. 



Good results have been obtained by the use of such measures in 

 the case of the Rome-Solomona Railway in Italy, and of the St. Louis 

 and South-western Raihoad, preventive work on the latter resulting, 

 in 1917, in the reduction of malaria cases by 59*4 per cent. 



Sergent (Edm.) & Sergent (Et.). Sur le Paludisme des Oiseaux da 



au Plasmodium relictum (vel proteosoma). [Malaria of Birds due 

 to Plasmodiwn relictum vel proteosoma.] — Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 

 Paris, xxxii, no. 8, August 1918, pp. 382-388, 2 figs. 



The experimental inoculation of birds with Plasmodium relictum, 

 either by the bites of infected Culicines or by intraperitoneal inoculation 

 with the blood of an infected bird, has shown that the infection is 

 practically the same in both cases, the incubation period lasting for 

 from 3 to 10 days, and the resulting mortality being GTS per cent 

 [see this Review, Ser. B, vi, p. 140]. In fatal cases the spleen was 

 found to be enormously enlarged and blackened, the same being the 

 case in individuals exhibiting relative immunity. 



The mosquitos in which the complete evolution of P. relictum can 

 take place are : — Culex sergenti, Theo., Theobaldia longiareolata, 

 Mcq. {sjMthi'palpis, Bond.) and Acartomyiu mariae, Serg. & Theo., all 

 being species the larvae of which can live only in salt water in excava- 

 tions on the clii^s of the Mediterranean coast. The incubation period 

 of the infection transmitted by the bite of Acartomyia mariae is 11 

 days instead of 3 or 4 days. Culex pipiens retains the power of trans- 

 mitting infection for 5 months at a temperature of from 46°-77° F., 

 and immunity is never acquired by this species. 



A trypanosome is also described, but not named, from the blood 

 of a canary {Serinus canarius). The sparrow {Passer domesticus) in 

 two cases out of several hundreds was also found to be infested with 

 this trvpanosome. 



