42 



where it rages amongst horses, oxen, buffalos and dogs. H. Schein 

 has insisted that ruminants are the carriers of the poison. The authors 

 say that out of 500 oxen taken to the abattoir in good health they only 

 found six carrying the organism, and out of 89 buffalos examined they 

 failed to find a single case. Out of 300 dogs infected with Dirofilaria 

 repens in the proportion of 30 per cent., only one showed trypanosomes. 

 Two or three dogs suffering from trypanosomiasis are brought every 

 year to the veterinary surgeon, and these generally die in a month. 

 The authors say that they have observed that horses suffering from 

 trypanosomiasis have invariably lived at the time of their infection 

 in partially cleared areas covered with bush. In the course of two 

 epidemics, in the first of which nine out of 48 horses died and in the 

 second 100 out of 200, all the horses were treated with equal care in 

 stables alongside the cattle stables. The groups of horses sent 

 to pasture in areas covered with brushwood provided all the cases 

 of sickness, whilst those which were pastured on clearings and were 

 only allowed out during the night or during cool sunless days and 

 were kept in a stable during the hot periods of the day, remained 

 absolutely healthy. The temperature of all the horses was taken, 

 suspected cases isolated, and the moment trypanosomiasis was detected 

 the animal was killed, and these measures were sufficient to stop the 

 spread of the disease in a maximum period of 11 days, this being the 

 mean period of incubation. These facts permit the supposition 

 that the agent of transmission is a fly living in open stretches in wooded 

 areas, such as the Tabamis, rather than Stomoxys or some other 

 sedentary domestic fly. 



The authors' experiments on the transmission of the disease to 

 guinea-pigs by means of Tabanvs annamiticus, Surcouf, by Stomoxys, 

 Chrysops or mosquitos, have failed. The Tabanids only lived two 

 or three days after capture, and they would not bite the experimental 

 animals spontaneously. 



The authors have examined the blood of about 2,000 pigs, invariably 

 with negative results, but inoculation experiments conducted upon 

 them with 1 cc. of the blood of horses, mules, guineapigs or dogs 

 affected with the disease, were invariably successful. Of 19 animals 

 six were inoculated under the skin and 13 in the peritoneum. Two 

 monkeys {Macacus rhesus), 12 guineapigs and two pigs inoculated 

 with the blood of a dog suffering from the disease, all died. 



Shannon (R. C). Feeding Habits of Pklebofomus vexator, Coq. — Proc. 

 Entom. Soc, Washington, xv, no. 4, Dec. 1913, pp. 165-167. 



Recent observations made by the author and by Dr. Paul Bartsch 

 tend to show that Phlebotonms vexator feeds normally upon reptiles. 

 On the evening of 19th July 1913 a large copperhead snake was shot 

 and badly crippled at Plummer's Island, Maryland. It still showed 

 life the following morning, when it was found to have numbers of 

 this Phlebotomus feeding upon it. The flies had their beaks inserted 

 between the scales of the snake and some of them were so heavily 

 engorged that they were unable to fly ; both males and females 

 were present. In Paris, Virginia, on the same day a black snake 

 was caught which had, in addition to numerous ticks, a few of the 

 same flies feeding upon it in a similar way. Specimens of P. vexator 



