72 



of the date of infectivity of the louse after feeding upon the patient 

 and with the following general results ; the reappearance of the 

 spirilla in the body of the louse seems to occur between the 

 eighth and the nineteenth day, after which they again disappear. 

 The percentage of lice infected was found to be about 17^. They 

 also found that four times as many female lice became infected as 

 males, and this proportion applies equally to F. vestivienti and 

 P. capitis. The authors were able to show that the spirilla are 

 exclusively found in the general body cavity of the lice. Minute 

 examiiiation of the contents of the alimentary tract of infected 

 lice failed to exhibit any spirilla ; a similar examination of their 

 excrement Aoided on the human skin gave the same negative 

 result. It was observed that in thirty cases of dead infected lice, 

 examined immediately after death, no spirilla were ever found. 

 Reasoning from the fact that direct transmission of the disease by 

 bite was hardly possible, they argued that in order to explain the 

 relation between the louse and the transmission of the disease, 

 some means must be found by which the contents of the body 

 cavity of the infected insect can come into contact with a raw 

 surface of the skin. Two experiments were made upon men; one 

 by rubbing the extract of two pounded lice upon a slight excoria- 

 tion of the skin, as a result of which the man contracted spiril- 

 losis. In the second case, the extract was dropped into the eye, 

 and again the subject contracted spirillosis. In both cases the 

 disease was cut short by the injection of salvarsan. The authors 

 consider that in this way they have satisfactorily proved : (1) 

 that the louse is the carrier of spirillosis ; and (2) that the method 

 of infection is not through the bite, but through the louse causing 

 irritation to the individual who crushes it and at the same time 

 breaks the surface of his skin with his nail and thus opens the way 

 for the entry of the poison into his system. 



Some further experiments made by the authors tend to show 

 that the spirillosis is, so to speak, hereditary in the louse, that is, 

 that the eggs laid by the infected louse Avill produce young con- 

 taining spirilla and capable of transmitting the infection in the 

 manner described. It seemed to the authors possible that as 

 Orniiliodorvs mouhata is undoubtedly known to be the carrier of 

 another form of spirillosis, the South Tunisian O. samgnyi might 

 also transmit recurrent fever. Large numbers of these ticks were 

 obtained and were allowed to bite three monkeys, but the results 

 were entirely negative. 



Tafozool Hoosaix. Bed-bugs and their destruction. — Indian Med. 

 Gazette, Feb. 1913, p. 84. 



In a letter to the Indian Medical Gazette the author says that 

 medicinal turpentine is exceedingly effective in destroying bed- 

 bugs, but that it should be made into an emulsion with its own 

 volume of soap-suds. Without these it has not the proper effect, 

 as the bugs having very smooth and hard backs turpentine alone 

 runs off and the bugs get a^vay and escape destruction. The soap- 

 suds cause the turpentine to adhere to them in such a way that they 

 can never escape alive. 



