236 



Reports and Papers on Malaria contracted in England in 1917.— 



Repts. to Local Govt. Bd. on Public Health <& Med. Subjects, 

 London, New Series no. 119, 1918, 85 pp., 6 plates, 1 map. 



The papers contained in this report deal with mihtary, naval and 

 <?ivil cases of malaria contracted in England in 1917 ; practical points 

 in the study of malaria and its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, 

 including mosquito control measures, which are fully described ; 

 Enghsh mosquitos, by A. J. Grove ; tables showing recorded observa- 

 tions of Anophelines in England ; reports on the mosquito surveys 

 of various districts ; and a map showing the localities in which 

 Anopheline mosquitos have been recorded in England and Wales, 

 which has already been noticed [see this Review, Ser. B, vi, p. 175]. 



The Etiology of Trench Fever.— 5riY. Med. Jl, London, no. 3005, 

 3rd August 1918, p. 120. 



A commission under Major R. P. Strong appointed by the American 

 Red Cross Research Conmiittee reports the following further results 

 of experiments on the transmission of trench fever : — (1) The disease 

 is caused by a filterable virus. (2) It can be conveyed by the bites 

 of the louse alone, as well as by other means. (3) Infection appears 

 to be conveyed by such bites for at least twelve days after the louse 

 has ceased to feed on a patient with trench fever. (4) The virus 

 is present in the urine, and the disease can be transmitted experimen- 

 tally by inoculation with urinary sediment on a scarified area of the 

 skin. (5) Similar results have been obtained with the sputum and 

 saUva. 



Hunter (Col. W.). New Methods of Disinfection for the Prevention 

 and Arrest of Lice-borne Diseases (Typhus, Relapsing, and Trench 



Fevers). —Brit. Med. Jl, London, no. 3008, 24th August 1918, 

 pp. 198-201, 3 figs. 



This is an account of the methods devised by the British Mihtary 

 Sanitary Mission sent to Serbia in 1915, in their attempt to deal with 

 the appalhng conditions there, due to typhus and relapsing fever. 

 The urgent need was for extended measures, of disinfection on a 

 large scale against body vermin, and these were made possible by the 

 use of a railway-van disinfector devised to effect the disinfection of 

 troops in large numbers. 



The disinfector, which was made from a steel van and a small, old 

 railway engine for the combined purpose of locomotion and production 

 of steam, is described. Clothes placed in this apparatus, at the end 

 of an hour, were found to be full of steam at a temperature of 212° F. 

 to 220° F., which rapidly evaporated on the clothes being shaken in 

 the air, leaving them dry in a minute or two. 



Such a disinfector with a double van is capable of disinfecting 500 

 kits with 1,000 blankets and 500 overcoats every two hours, or 10,000 

 kits and overcoats and 20,000 blankets every four days. 

 |. The important factors in this process are : (1) The disinfecting 

 power of steam in continuous motion at ordinary atmospheric pressure ; 

 such steam is the simplest and most potent disinfectant. (2) The 



