144 



its onset is very insidious and its development very slow, it may pass 

 unnoticed until many birds have become infested. The Sarcoptid 

 mite causing it is frequently conveyed to the head by scratching, 

 and often causes the death of the bird. The mites can be destroyed 

 by the parasiticides used against other Acarids of the same group, 

 sulphur preparations being particularly efficacious. Fowl-houses, etc., 

 should be thoroughly disinfected at the same time with hot water 

 containing potassium sulphide. 



Laueie (D. F.). Factors Detrimental to the Poultry Industry. — Jl. 



Dept. Agric. S. Australia, Adelaide, xxii, no. 9, April 1919 pp. 

 727-728. [Received 5th July 1919.] 



In South Australia there is a remarkable absence of many of the 

 fatal diseases of poultry common to other countries ; the majority 

 of cases of illness that occur are due to the poultry tick, Argas jpersicus. 

 Owing to carelessness on the part of poultry keepers with regard to 

 the presence of this tick, it is proposed to enforce the regulations 

 concerning it that form part of the Stock Diseases Act of 1888. Under 

 these regulations, anyone exhibiting for sale, or offering to sell any 

 tick-infested poultry will be prosecuted. Inspectors have the power 

 to seize and destroy all tick-infested birds. Infested buildings should 

 be thoroughly treated with kerosene or Pintch gas residue ; where this 

 cannot be done, they should be burned. 



BouFPARD (G.). Du Paludisme au Dahomey. — Bidl. Soc. Path. Exot., 

 Paris, xii, no. 6, 11th June 1919, pp. 304-307. 



For many years past, Dahomey has been regarded by the successive 

 medical officers who have been on duty there as a centre in which 

 endemic malaria rages at frequent intervals among both the military 

 and civil population. While the situation has improved of recent 

 years, the troops continue to suffer far more than the civil population, 

 the latter being more permanently and more comfortably installed 

 and having learnt the value of daily quininisation and the use of a 

 mosquito net maintained in perfect condition. The taking of the 

 endemic index among the 30,000 or more natives of Porto-Novo, the 

 chief town of the Colony, situated on the edge of a lake, shows the 

 percentage during 1916-1917 to be a low one, averaging about 9 per 

 cent, for the year. The percentage is much higher in the rainy season, 

 from May to November, and reaches its maximum in July, a month of 

 comparative dryness, but not sufficiently so to affect the numerous 

 breeding-places of Anopheline larvae created by the heavy rains of 

 May and June. The low percentage of cases shows that Dahomey is 

 one of the least malarial of this group of colonies, but it must be 

 remembered that the figures quoted are only relative, and would not 

 necessarily be true for any other year. Numerous cases have been 

 noticed of primary infection with schizonts of tropical malaria among 

 very young children and adults newly arrived in the colony, while 

 it is to be expected that an exceptionally rainy winter would result 

 in a largely increased number of Anopheles and a consequent rise in the 

 malarial index. It would therefore be very unwise to relax any part 

 of the anti-malarial prophylactic measures now carried out. 



