26 



occurs in millions in the open-ditch sewers. Ctdex 'pi/piens and C. 

 fatigans are found in the marshes, in natural pools, and in the natural 

 wells used for washing clothes. Neither larval nor adult Anojjheles 

 were met with, either in the town or within several miles of it. The 

 first sanitary measures undertaken were those usual against yellow 

 fever. Although in previous years yellow fever had always been 

 epidemic, there has not been a single case for 18 months, since February 

 1913, and the general mortality rate has dropped from 49"52 in 1912 

 to 28*88 in 1913, although the population has increased. 



Long (J. D.). Plague Eradication in California. Present Situation — 

 The Disease apparently eradicated. — Public Health Reports, 

 Washington, B.C., xxix, no. 47, 20th November 1914, 

 pp. 3103-3107. 

 Plague was first reported in California about the year 1900 and 

 occasional cases occurred to 1904. The total number of cases since 

 then amount to 187, the last human case occurring in a mild form in 

 May 1914. Between August 1907 and December 1908, 523 plague- 

 infected rats were found in San Francisco and in Oakland. In August 

 1908, the discovery was made that plague existed among the ground 

 squirrels and that 140,000 acres were thus infected. The contagious 

 disease act was made applicable over the entire area, and since 1st 

 July 1913, the squirrels over 3,100,000 acres have been reduced in 

 numbers, the average infestation being now probably about 1 squirrel 

 to 4 acres, or about one-fiftieth of what it formerly was. It is estimated 

 that about 20,150,000 squirrels have been destroyed since 1st July 

 1913. In a subsequent paper entitled, " The economy of ground 

 squirrel destruction " [Public Health Reports, xxix, no. 50, p. 3317] 

 it is stated that 497 rephes were received to a circular enquiry as to the 

 economic bejiefits of squirrel destruction. The amount expended per 

 person was about £15 on an area of 321,233 acres and the direct saving 

 per person was about £42. 



RiCARDo (G.). Notes on the Tabanidae of the Australian Region. — 



Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., London, xiv, no. 83, November 1914, 



pp. 387-397. 

 The following Australian Tabanidae are described, the classification 

 of groups being that used by the author in Records of the Indian 

 Museum, iv, no. 6, 1911 : Group iv, Tabamis nemotuberculatus, sp. n., 

 T. nemopunctatus, sp. n., Queensland ; Group vii, T. cinerescens, 

 MacLeay, T. transversus. Walk., T. reducens. Walk., Macassar and 

 Celebes, T. similis, Macq., Tasmania, T. rufinotatus, Big., T. 

 queenslandi, sp. n., T. strangmannii, sp. n., T. parvicallosus, sp. n., 

 T. laticallosus, sp. n., T. duplonotatus, sp. n., all from Queensland. 



NicoLLE (C), Blanc (G.) & Conseil (E.). Quelques Points de I'Etude 

 Experimentale de Typhus Exanth6matique. [Notes on the Experi- 

 mental Study of Exanthematous Typhus.] — 0. R. Acad. Sci., 

 Paris, chx, no. 19, 9th November 1914, pp. 661-664. 

 Researches were undertaken at Tunis in 1914, in order to clear up 



debateable questions as to exanthematous typhus, especially as regards. 



the period when lice fed on infectious blood become virulent. The 



