175 



poisonous reactions. In higher animals on the contrary, when the 

 compound is taken into the lungs, it is rapidly removed by the blood 

 and carried to all parts of the body, giving it an opportunity to react 

 chemically on the tissues. In short, wth the higher animals, toxicity 

 is more closely related to chemical composition than to volatility, the 

 reverse being the case in insects. Compounds with boiling points of 

 225° to 250° C. are usually so shghtly volatile that they do not produce 

 death except after very long exposures. 



MacCormac (H.) & Small (W. D. D.). The Scabies Problem on Active 

 Service.— Brit. Med. Jl.„ London,\\o. 2960, 22nd September 1917, 

 pp. 384-386. 



Scabies is by far the commonest of the skin diseases found among 

 soldiers, pediculosis excepted, and the wastage from this cause is 

 considerable. The disease is rarely contracted except after prolonged 

 and intimate contact with infected material, blanlcets having been 

 found to be the chief means of dissemination, though a few cases 

 have been contracted from horses. Preventive measures include 

 regular medical inspection for the detection of infested individuals and 

 their segregation ; the inspection of horses, and the frequent 

 sterilisation of blankets. The old method of treatment by sulphur 

 vapour, recently revived, is a method that is often harmful to the 

 patient, and always dangerous to the community in that it creates a 

 class of scabies "carrier." The most suitable method of treatment 

 is inunction with sulphur ointment on account of its efl&ciency, 

 simplicity and cheapness, but it must be carried out in a methodical 

 and thorough manner, and with careful attention to the necessary 

 details. 



Debreuil (G.). Les Poux et le Chemineau. [Lice and a Tramp.]— 

 Bull. Soc. Nat. Acclimat., Paris, Ixiv, no. 8, August 1917, 

 pp. 318-322. 



The author records an original method of ridding clothing of hce. 

 In a wood in France he came upon a tramp who had divested himself 

 of all his clothing, which he placed on and around a large nest of ants 

 (Formica fusca). After leaving the garments for an hour he picked 

 them up and, finding that they were free from ants, remarked that the 

 work was finished and that the clothing would be more thoroughly 

 free from vermin than any laboratory could make it. Some 

 observations on carnivorous ants in Africa are recorded. In tropical 

 Africa, especially in wooded regions, a group of ants occurs which are 

 feared by both Europeans and natives, although in reality they are 

 very useful on account of the destruction they cause among noxious 

 animals. 



The Mexican ant, Pheidole valisti, Perg., is said to swarm 

 periodically about suburban dwelhngs, which it clears of the insects 

 in all stages that frequently infest the walls and niches of the rooms 

 after the rainy season. Pheidole jMllida, MyL, is a similar species that 

 occurs in southern France and in greenhouses in Belgium. 



