73 



Ber, and Ged Aboukr on the Arori Plain, as well as at Bulbar and 

 Hargeisa. 0. savigmji is invariably found in dirty and unsanitary- 

 surroundings where men and animals congregate, such as in the soil 

 in and around camping grounds of long standing, under trees which 

 afford shade, and around wells where animals are watered. It bites 

 both men and animals, but as far as is known does not convey any 

 parasite harmful to the latter. There is great danger of the tick 

 being spread by animals watered at the wells. The author caught 

 several ticks on the legs of his pony, which they were obviously biting. 

 Recently, malignant tertian malaria has been introduced by several 

 men of the Camel Constabulary^ who visited the Tug Wagali, on the 

 borders of British and Abyssinian Somahland, but owing to the 

 absence of mosquitos, the disease has not spread. [See also this Revie 

 Ser. B, i, p. 116; ii. p. 8.] 



KuNHAEDT (Capt. J. C.) & Taylor (Capt. J.), assisted by Assistant- 

 Surgeons Ganpati Iyer (R.), Kesava Menon (T.), Varadhachari 

 (B. v.), Raghavendra Rao (R.). & Narayan Rao (K.). 

 Epidemiological observations in Madras Presidency. — Jl. Hygiene, 

 Cambridge, Plague Supplement iv, Ist January 1915, pp. 

 683-751, 7 maps, 30 charts. 



Chapter vi of this paper deals with rat and flea prevalence in the 

 Madras Presidency. An examination conducted in the severely 

 infected, moderately infected, and plague-free areas has shown that 

 in none of them, in the light of the Commission's experience elsewhere, 

 was the number of fleas too small to prohibit the development of an 

 epidemic in them. Severe epidemics have occurred in the Bellary 

 district and in the Nilgiris, where rats and fleas are less numerous than 

 in places which have escaped infection ; facihties for communication 

 with infected districts, or a suitable cHmate, may be supposed to have 

 made up for the deficiency in rats and fleas. Yet in Hosur taluq, 

 for example, where fleas are numerous on rats (nearly 15 per rat at 

 the height of the plague season), epidemics have on the whole been 

 more severe and persistent than in Coimbatore and Vaniambadi, at 

 which places 10 fleas per rat was the maximum number found. In 

 Madura and Cuddalore, where approximately the maximum average 

 number of fleas was only 6 per rat, plague has not occurred. The 

 number of fleas on rats is, however, dependent to a great extent on 

 the climate. Experiments have shown that rats caught in places in 

 Madras which have been free from plague epidemics, are very susceptible 

 to plague infection. The existence of such susceptible rats at the 

 present time, in view of the fact that plague has now been present 

 in the country for more than 17 years, indicates that conditions exist 

 in those places which have hmdered the successful implanting of 

 infection in them. The authors are inclined to attribute this compara- 

 tive immunity to the warm climate obtaining over the greater part 

 of the Presidency and conclude that the physical features and climate 

 there have an important influence in limiting the distribution of 

 plague in it. . -■• . vi-... ; :,[:V},J 



