76 



Single rooms should not be fumigated unless the whole building 

 can be vacated during the operation. 



To prepare hydrocyanic acid gas, 98-99 per cent, grade sodium 

 cyanide should be combined with the other materials according to the 

 following formula: Sodium cyanide 1 oz. avp., sulphuric acid 1^ U.S. 

 fluid oz., water 3 U.S. fluid oz. For loosely constructed frame-houses 

 these amounts may be doubled for each 100 cubic feet. A tabular 

 statement of the capacity of the various rooms and amount of chemicals 

 required for each should be prepared. The opening of doors and win- 

 dows from the outside at the conclusion of the fumigation must be 

 arranged for, and all registers, fireplaces and other openings closed ; 

 food substances and metallic objects that are likely to be tarnished must 

 be removed. The generating vessels should be placed in each room 

 with a thick carpeting of old newspapers under each. The cyanide 

 must be broken up out of doors and placed in thin paper bags containing 

 charges suited to the amounts to be used in the different rooms. Into 

 each of the generating jars the proper quantity of water should be 

 measured and the requisite amount of acid slowly added. The 

 cyanide should be taken in bags in a basket and the bags containing 

 the proper amounts placed beside the generating jars in each room. 

 Starting at the top of the house, the cyanide should be placed gently 

 in each jar and the room quickly vacated. If two persons work 

 together, they should deal with the same floor at the same time, taking 

 different rooms. On the following day, the doors and windows should 

 all be opened from the outside and the house allowed to ventilate 

 for an hour before it is entered. 



Montgomery (E.). On a Tick-borne Gastro-enteritis of Sheep and 

 Goats occurring in British East Africa. — Jl. Comp. Path. 

 Therapeut., London, xxx, no. 1, March 1917, pp. 28-57. 



The author gives the following summary of this paper : — Haemor- 

 rhagic gastro-enteritis occurs in British East Africa principally in the 

 Kikuyu country, where it would appear to be enzootic, manifesting 

 itself as an epizootic only when large mobs of susceptible animals are 

 exposed to infection. Sheep and goats alone appear to be susceptible, 

 especially the former. Grade and pure-bred sheep are far more resis- 

 tant than the native sheep, in which the mortality is about 70 per 

 cent, of those attacked. The disease is carried by the brown tick, 

 Rhipicephalus apj^e/ndicidatus. No other tick has yet been proved to 

 transmit infection, but further investigation on this point is necessary. 

 Adult ticks that have fed on infected animals in the nymphal stage 

 can apparently carry the infection after moulting. It is possible that 

 larvae born of a female feeding on a sick animal may also transmit 

 the disease, but on this point the evidence is more scanty. 



Preventive inoculation has been tried, but so far without success. 

 The most favourable method seems to be by attenuating the virulence 

 of the disease for sheep by passing the virus for several generations 

 through the more resistant goat. Preventive measures should be 

 directed towards the eradication of ticks capable of carrying the disease. 



Rhipicepihalus appendiculatus is also the carrier of African Coast 

 fever in cattle and, for its eradication, cattle must be dipped every 

 three days. There is no doubt that dipping cattle at a three-day 



