148 



pharynx, larjaix, palate aud lips. This disease has probably spread 

 to this country from the neighbouring state of Brazil, where it has 

 long been known to exist. At the present time, these ulcers are 

 appearing in Paraguay to such an extent that, according to the evidence 

 of patients coming from these districts, hardly a house can be found 

 in which there is not one or more cases of the disease. 



The disease has been observed in natives of the country, and in 

 foreign residents, in both sexes and in old persons as well as in infants 

 at the breast. In some districts it has caused terrible havoc. Of 

 one hundred workmen who entered the woods to work, seventy to 

 eighty had to leave within two months owing to the development 

 of ulcers. In Paraguay, as in all other countries where buba 

 exists, the malady has been considered to be identical with syphilis, 

 but of a kind not at all amenable to ordinary specific treatment. 

 Owing to this mistake in diagnosis, the study of the disease was 

 neglected, and its treatment was fruitless, so that it has continued to 

 spread. The disease is known as "buba" in Paraguay, "bouba" in 

 Brazil, " espundia " in Bohvia and Peru, and " ulcera de Torrealba " 

 in Colombia. The symptoms and external appearances are described 

 and it is said that the patient may live 10, 15 or 20 years until the 

 bronchi become involved, when septic fever, malnutrition and 

 exhaustion cause death. Patients constantly attribute the beginning 

 of the trouble to the bite of a tick, but in numbers of cases the ulcer 

 develops round some small excoriation, however caused, and it is 

 easy to find leishmania bodies in the epithelial cells of the pus which 

 exudes from the sore. The author has failed to inoculate the disease 

 and it is almost impossible to find the leishmania bodies in the blood. 

 The second paper is largely a resume of Brumpt and Pedroso's work 

 [see this Revieiv, Ser. B, ii, p. 52] and the author sums up the position 

 as follows : Nothing is known of the etiological phenomena of buba 

 except by assumption from the facts already given. It is therefore 

 necessary to continue the search for the pathogenic agent of buba, and 

 this can only be arrived at by prolonged expert entomological and 

 laboratory investigation on the spot. 



Illingworth (J. F.). Hen Fleas, Xestopsylla gallinacea, Westw.— 

 Hawaiian Forester & Agriculturist, Honolulu, xii, no. 5, May 1915, 

 pp. 130-132. 



Echidnophaga {Xestops7jUa) gallinacea, Westw. (fowl flea), does not 

 appear to have been noticed by entomologists in Hawaii prior to 1913, 

 and was probably introduced on poultry from California. While it 

 normally attacks poultry, it appears to infest any other animals that 

 come within range and has been recorded from dogs, cats, horses, 

 rats, owls and man. It is particularly fond of young animals, and 

 hence is sometimes very annoying to children. In East Africa it was 

 found that 22-5 per cent, of the fleas attacldng rats belonged to this 

 species, hence they were thought to be an important agent in the 

 distribution of this pest. The author recently discovered that the 

 EngUsh sparrows, which swarm in fowl houses, are also infested, and 

 these may act as a rapid agent in carrying it from house to house. 

 It is now pretty generally distributed throughout the world, especially 

 favouring tropical and sub-tropical regions. In the United States 



