179 



Cattle are largely imported into Sierra Leone, and the authors discovered 

 in the blood of an ox a trypanosome indistinguishable from that 

 infecting man, viz : T. gambiense. The infected ox was apparently 

 in perfect health four months after the trypanosomes were found in its 

 blood. The number of infected oxen in the district is difficult to 

 determine ; the blood of 90 animals was examined and 9 subinocula- 

 tions into rats were made, but as rats are not very susceptible to the 

 infection, the failure of the experiments is thought to prove nothing. 

 Macfie considers that, in the Eket district [see this Review, Ser. B, iii, 

 p. 53], man is not the reservoir and that the true reservoir is unknown ; 

 his inoculation experiments were negative, but the authors consider 

 that the want of susceptibiHty of the rats and guineapigs used some- 

 what vitiates the conclusion. They believe that, in West Africa, man 

 is the most important reservoir and that there is also reason to 

 siispect domestic animals. 



YoRKE (Warrington) & Blacklock (B.). Notes on Certain Animal 

 Parasites of Domestic Stock in Sierra Leone. — Ann. Trop. Med. 

 Parasit., Liverpool, ix, no. 3, 31st July 1915, pp. 413-420. 



The results of the examination of 400 wild Glossina j)alpalis caught 

 on the Lighthouse Peninsula are given ; twenty of these yielded 

 trypanosomes, chiefly T. congolense and T. vivax, only in one case 

 T. gambiense. Parasites apparently identical with those discovered 

 by Macfie in cattle in Nigeria, were found in the blood of 20 to 30 

 per cent, of the cattle examined, and the authors regard it as hardly 

 doubtful that the parasite in question is Theileria mutans, as the cattle 

 were all apparently in good health. The ticks collected from 90 head 

 of cattle were determined by Dr. Nuttall as Margarojvis {Boophilus) 

 australis and Ambly omnia vartegatum. About 5 per cent, of the cattle 

 were infected with Piroplasma bigeminum. Serious epidemics of an 

 obscure disease of cattle also occur. 



Creel (R. H.). The Migratory Habits of Rats, with special Reference 

 to the Spread of Plague. — Public Health Reports, Washington, D.C., 

 XXX, no. 23, 4th June 1915, pp. 1679-1683, 1 map. 



Details are given of some experiments made with captured rats at 

 New Orleans where an epizootic of rat-plague occurred in the early 

 months of 1915. Beginning at the water front the disease spread 

 with some rapidity to the city boundaries. Two lots of rats were 

 collected from various parts of the town and each batch was distinctly 

 marked. The first lot, of 179 rats, was liberated on 28th March in 

 the central residential quarter, where the animals could obtain food 

 but could find little underground shelter. Injuries sustained in 

 captivity led to 19 of these marked animals being found dead near the 

 spot where they were liberated on the same or on the following day. 

 Of the remaining 160 animals, one was retaken about a mile away 

 within 48 hours. Within two weeks others were retaken as much as 

 three or four miles away. On 8th April, a second lot of 113 rats was 

 liberated in the wholesale provision warehouse district, where wooden 

 culverts, drains, etc., abound. There was less incentive for migration 

 and only 8 were retaken at any distance, while 60 of the 113 were 



(C216) a2 



