126 



Blacklock (B.). On the Multiplication and Infectivity of T. cruzi in 

 Cimex lectularius. — Brit. Med. Jl., Lo7idon, 25th April 1914, 

 pp. 912-913. 



The author's observations lead him to the following conclusions : — 



T. cruzi is capable of living and multiplying in Cimex lectularius 

 for long periods. 



The parasites found in the bed-bug are infective on inoculation 

 as early as twenty-one hours and as late as seventy-seven days from 

 the infecting feed. 



It is not possible to say which of the many different forms occurring 

 in the bug causes infection in the vertebrate host. 



Transmission of the disease to healthy animals by feeding infected 

 bugs on them is of very rare occurrence. It w^as only once observed 

 in the course of these experiments. There is no evidence of hereditary 

 transmission of T. cruzi in Cimex lectularius. 



Thompson (J. B.). Annual Report of the Guam Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station for t^\2.^Washinqton, D.C., 13th Nov. 1913, 

 29 pp., G ph., 7 figs. [Received lOth July 1914.] 



In notes on native hve-stock, the Agent-in-Charge, Mr. J. B. Thomp- 

 son, says that neither foot-and-mouth disease, surra, nor rinderpest 

 exists in Guam, and no contagious or infectious cattle diseases of any 

 kind. The Texas cattle tick {Margawpus annulatus) and the Australian 

 cattle tick {M. annulatus australis), reported as the carrier of Texas 

 fever in the Philippines, are both found in Guam. On 19th December 

 1911, over two months after arrival, an imported Ayrshire bull died 

 of what was believed to be tick fever, and all the remainder of the 

 cattle imported at the same time were at once clipped close and found 

 to be infested with minute ticks, so small as easily to escape detection. 

 As native cattle had had access to the pasture, it seemed possible 

 that the infection with ticks arose in situ, and the animals were 

 examined daily and kept free from ticks with the idea of immunising 

 them with blood of native stock, but the practical impossibility of 

 keeping the anim.als absolutely tick-free for the 10 or 12 days necessary 

 caused this idea to be abandoned. It is considered inadvisable 

 to risk the introduction of the Texas-fever organism by the purchase 

 of immune cattle and thus imperil the present cattle-raising industry 

 of the island. 



Barber (M. A.). Cockroaches and Ants as Carriers of the Vibrios of 

 Asiatic Cholera. — PJiilippine Jl. Science. Manila, Sec. B, ix., 

 no. 1, Feb. 1914, 4 pp. 



The author says that cockroaches, especially Periplaneta americana, 

 L., are very common in dwelling-houses in Manila at all seasons of 

 the year, and as they are voracious feeders on all kinds of organic 

 matter, and at night, especially, walk over and discharge their faeces 

 on unprotected human food, and have also abundant means of access 

 to human faeces, it suggested itself to the author that they might 

 be a means of conveying Asiatic cholera. 



The insects used for experiment were all winged adults, which 

 were caught and kept for a day or two until hungry, and then placed 



