92 



Curiously enough, malaria was less widespread in the plains than 

 in the villages in the hollows of the mountains, where the abundance 

 of water, great heat and dense vegetation all favoured Anophelines, 

 and the rocky stream beds provided them with breeding-places that 

 were difficult to deal with. The large towns, such as Aleppo, Adana 

 and Tarsus, which are dry and treeless, were comparatively free from 

 malaria. Benign tertian was the chief form of malaria, while quartan, 

 which occurs in Jerusalem, was scarcely found. 



Typhus was the insect-borne disease next in importance. In 

 summer the disease disappears almost entirely, because the heat 

 hinders the transfer of lice and the frequent opportunities for washing 

 reduce their numbers. Any slight obstacle to its natural spread 

 seems to exercise a considerable check on this disease, and the very 

 incomplete measures adopted hindered its diffusion in spite of the 

 continued presence of lice. 



Recurrent fever had the same distribution and winter epidemic 

 period as typhus, thus proving its dependence on lice. 



Sand-fly fever, which was scarcely noticeable among the natives, 

 affected travelling Turks and Germans. Its presence was undoubtedly 

 connected with that of Phlebotomiis. In one case Rickettsia-\\\ie 

 organisms were found in the gut of a female midge that had sucked 

 blood from a patient. 



A small epidemic of dengue occurred early in 1917 ; Aedes [Stegomyia] 

 sp., the supposed carrier, was very numerous. 



Solely on account of its name, special attention was given to the 

 Aleppo boil. It seemed to be on the decrease and occurred chiefly 

 among native children in dirty parts of the town. This decrease is 

 associated with the draining of a swamp in the neighbourhood of 

 the town, and as Phlehotomus has remained abundant, the facts seem 

 to be opposed to Sergent and Patton's theory of the transmission 

 of the boil by these sand-flies. 



Galli-Valerio (B.). Beobachtungen iiber Culiciden, nebst Bemer- 

 kungen iiber Tabaniden und Simuliden. [Observations on CuHcids, 

 with Remarks on Tabanids and Simuliids.] — Centralbl. Bakt. 

 Paras. Infekt., Jena, Ite Abt. Orig., Ixxxvii, no. 7-8, 31st 

 January 1922, pp. 557-560. 



In 1920, even as late as 20th November, both larvae and pupae of 

 Theohaldia annulata and many small larvae of Anopheles bifurcatus 

 were found at Vidy, the temperature of the air being 6° C. [42-8° F.] 

 and that of the water 10° C. [50° F.]. Most of the pools had dried up 

 by December, but a few of these larvae were found on 14th December 

 and were still alive on 22nd January 1921. This pool subsequently 

 dried up, and only on 3rd June was water again seen in it, with many 

 small larvae of Culex apparently three days old. On 24th June 

 the first pupae of Culex appeared, and on 9th July young larvae of 

 T. annulata and A. bifurcatus were seen. After two weeks of rain 

 the pool contained on 26th August many larvae and pupae of Culex 

 pipiens, T. annulata and A. bifurcatus, and some of A. maculipennis. 



The drought in 1921 resulted in a mosquito plague in the Canton 

 of Valais, because barrels and other receptacles were placed in every 

 garden for collecting water, and they proved excellent breeding- places. 



On the Alpine pastures of Vaud and Valais Tabanidae had never 

 been so abundant as in the summer of 1921. The view that their 

 presence is connected with that of cattle is discounted by the fact 



