97 



Leeward Islands. Despatch of the Governor, Sir H. Hesketh Bell, to thf^^, v^ 

 Colonial Office. [Received 3rd May 1915.] " '^ " 



In an enclosure to this despatch, Dr. J. C. McPherson, the Senior 

 Medical Officer of Montserrat, says that, though it has often been 

 reported that no Anopheles existed in the island which might act as 

 malaria-carriers, specimens of Anopheles {Cellia) argyrotarsis have been 

 found at Elberton, and that it is of interest to note that fever, possibly 

 of malarial origin, was said at one time to be very common in this 

 region. 



RouBAUD (E.). H6matophagie larvaire et afflnit6s parasitaires d'une 

 mouche Calliphorine, Phormia sordida, Meig., parasite des jeunes 



oiseaux. [Larval bloodsucking habits and parasitic affinities of the 

 Calliphorine fly, Phormia sordida, Meig., a parasite of young 

 birds.] — B}dl. Sac. Path. Exof., Paris, viii, no. 2, 10th February 

 1915, pp. 77-79. 



In 1844 Dufour observed that the larvae of Phormia azurea, Meig. 

 { = sordida, Zett.), developed in swallows' nests, and that their digestive 

 tube contained a red substance resembling blood. During the past 

 summer M. H. Du Buysson sent to the author a number of these larvae 

 taken in Allier (France) from the nest of the great titmouse, Parus 

 major, the presence of blood in the digestive tube of newly gorged 

 individuals being indisputable. These larvae can only attack the skin 

 of the host if pressed against it by some other body, such as the side 

 of the nest. The quantity of blood ingested is similar to that sucked 

 by Auchmeromyia larvae. The bite is rather painful to man, resembhng 

 that of the larvae of Chaeromyia. The parasitic adaptation of the larvae 

 of Phormia sordida to young, featherless birds is more primitive in 

 character, but otherwise completely analogous to that of African 

 Calliphorinae parasitic on man and on mammals having little hair. 



Kerandel(J.). Insectivore reservoir de virus de la peste au Cambodge. 



[An Insectivore as a reservoir of plague virus in Cambodia.] — ■ 

 Bull. Soc. Path. Exot., Paris, viii, no. 2, 10th February 1915, 

 pp. 54-57. 



In October 1915, the body of a freshly dead shrew, Crocidura 

 murina, L., was found at Pnom-Penh, in the house of a Chinaman 

 who had died of plague. A microscopic examination of the ganglia 

 revealed numerous coccobacilli, morphologically identical with those 

 of Yersin. They were also found in the liver and spleen and were 

 about as plentiful in the blood as in a rat naturally infected with 

 plague. A jelly, sown according to Veillon's method, produced a culture 

 of bacilli indistinguishable from those of authentic plague. White 

 mice and a guineapig were inoculated with these bacilli and succumbed 

 to septicaemia and congestion. The author's recall to France, owing 

 to the war, interrupted the experiments, but it would appear that 

 C. murina plays a role in plague dissemination similar to that of rats. 

 Xenopsylla cheopis, Rothschild, was found on three of these shrews 

 in even larger proportions than on rats captured in the same locality. 



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