190 



while the Government veterinary surgeon at Singapore reports that 

 it is the only agent he has used which is capable of dealing instan- 

 taneously with cattle ticks. 



Horn (A. E.). Colony of the Gambia. Annual Medical and Sanitary 

 Report for the year ending 31st December 1914, Bathurst, 40 pp. 



The mosquito index figures for Bathurst are defective owing to 

 shortage of staff, but for June and October the figures were 53 and 

 64 per cent, respectively, more thorough examination of houses 

 accounting for the higher figures. Of the water specimens taken, 

 1,036 were found infected, 237 from wells and 799 from jars and 

 bottles ; these yielded 729 Stegomyia, 53 Culex and 17 mixed Culex 

 and Stegomyia. Land-crab holes swarm in the north-west of the 

 town and, when disturbed, several mosquitos emerge from practically 

 every one of them. Filling them in proved useless, as the crabs quickly 

 form others ; filling with chloride of lime and treading it down was 

 more effective. A salt-water lagoon to the north of the town was 

 found to be swarming with larvae of Culex ihalassius. About 12 acres 

 of mangroves have been cut and cleared to the north-west of the town. 

 When a well is found to contain mosquito larvae, an order is served 

 on the owner to stock it with fish ; the fish are generally asked for 

 and obtained from the Board of Health stock, which has the advantage 

 of enabling a record of the well to be kept. 



Addison (J. B.). Ann. Rept. Med. Dept for the year 1914, Victoria, 

 Seychelles, 1915, 13 pp. 



The chief Medical Officer reports that some of the outlying islands 

 are still infested with chiggers [DermatojjJiilvs 'penetrans], and in spite 

 of precautions, a few cases appear in Mahe from time to time. There 

 does not seem to be, however, any fear of a serious infestation. 



Saunders (P. T.). Skin Disease of Cattle in Antigua. — West Indian 

 Bulletin, Barbados, xv, no. 1, 1915, pp. 36-46. 



A disease of cattle in Antigua, supposed to be identical with the 

 "farcin du boeuf" of Guadeloupe, is said to have been common in 

 France fifty years ago, but to have now disappeared. There is some 

 doubt as to whether the Antigua and Guadeloupe forms are identical, 

 as in the former island only bovines are affected, and in the latter 

 horses, cattle and mules. In the British West Indies it is at present 

 only known in Antigua and there chiefly in the south-western portions 

 of the island. Cattle trade between Antigua and Guadeloupe was 

 active forty or fifty years ago and there is a general belief that the 

 disease made its appearance coincidently with the importation of 

 cattle from Senegal about that time. The gold tick, Ambhjomma 

 variegatum, F., is supposed to have been brought by them to the island. 

 The precise cause of the disease is still unknown, but inasmuch as it 

 is rare or unknown on estates where spraying against ticks is carefully 

 carried out, it seems reasonable to connect the tick with its carriage. 

 The symptoms, pathology and treatment are described at length. 

 The mortality formerly reached from 75 to 80 per cent., but is now 

 about 25 per cent. 



