108 



infested by Ornithodorus mouhata, the tick conveying Spirochaeta 

 duttoni, which is the causal agent of African relapsing fever. 

 Many of the Congolese soldiers had not previously been bitten by this 

 tick, and in many localities infections were numerous, the disease 

 becoming one of the most serious factors of mortality among the 

 troops and one-sixth of the deaths being due to this cause. The sani- 

 tary service issued recommendations for the prevention of the disease, 

 but for a long time these were of little avail owing to the native habit 

 of sleeping whenever possible in native houses and thus becoming 

 infected and carrying infection into the cantonments. During the 

 offensive of 1917, however, the disease became quite a secondary 

 danger ; the troops had learnt to fear the ticks and had less occasion 

 to frequent infected houses, while the supply of the necessary drugs 

 had been greatly increased. 



Malaria was also the cause of a high degree of mortality among 

 natives. The territories of German East Africa occupied by Belgian 

 troops consisted chiefly of high, mountainous pastures, inhabited by 

 natives who are accustomed to a relatively cold climate where malaria 

 is rare or non-existent, and who know by experience that when they 

 go down to the plains they return with a tenacious fever which they 

 dread. During the 1917 campaign a number of these natives w^ere 

 employed as carriers for the Belgian troops, but their employment 

 soon had to be abandoned owing to the high proportion of deaths 

 and cases of sickness among them due to the malaria that they so 

 readily contracted, w^hich was of the malignant tertian form. The 

 liability to malarial infection by natives inhabiting a country w^here 

 malaria is practically unknown, when removed to malarial regions, 

 is well-known and had been foreseen by -the military medical service. 



King (W. W.). A Note on the Flight of Mosquitoes through horizontal 

 Water-pipes. —U.S. Public Health Repts., Washington, D.C., xxxiv, 

 no. 9, 28th February 1919, pp. 386-390, 1 fig. [Received 16th 

 April 1919.] 



Particulars are given of observations made in the Virgin Islands 

 that led the author to the conviction that mosquitos pass in and 

 out of perpendicular spouts but do not enter through those that 

 have a considerable horizontal section, though a horizontal pipe as 

 much as 200 feet long did not prevent their escape when breeding 

 in cisterns. The mosquitos in question were provisionally identified 

 as Culex fatigans {quinquefasciatu.<t). 



Le Prince (J. A.). Mosquito Control about Cantonments and Ship- 

 yards. — U.S. Public Health Reps., Washington, B.C., xxxiv, no. 

 12, 21st March 1919, pp. 547-553. 



The measures adopted in military cantonments and shipyards in 

 the United States to control mosquitos, are described, thus minimising 

 the spread of malaria amongst the troops. In some places temporary 

 measures were resorted to until complete drainage could be undertaken. 

 The work proved successful, the Anophelines being kept under control 

 over an aggregate area of 1,200 sq. miles. The measures in question 

 also effected a marked reduction in the malaria rate among the civil 

 population in. the neighbourhood of the areas dealt with. 



