January 25, 19 12] 



NATURE 



417 



occurs outside the epidemic and endemic areas of 

 yellow fever in East Africa, Arabia, India, Indo- 

 China, China, Japan, the East Indies, Australia, and 

 some of the Pacific Islands. It may be asked, how 

 is it that yellow fever is not a disease of the last- 

 named countries ? The reply is because the disease has 

 never been introduced into them, and epidemiologists 

 are keenly alive to the fact that the conditions exist- 

 ing therein are probably just as favourable for its 

 spread there as in the localities in which it exists. 

 Should the disease ever be introduced into the East, 

 and increasing facilities and rapidity of travel are 

 favourable for such an event, the consequences prob- 

 ably would be disastrous. The impending opening of 

 the Panama Canal, for instance, is recognised as a 

 menace to China so far as the introduction of yellow- 

 fever is concerned, and efficient precautions will doubt- 

 less be taken to prevent such an occurrence. 



The various subdivisions of the book deal respec- 

 tivelv with the history and geographical distribution 



Fig. 2. — \ row of upturnecl bottles used ;to make an edge to a flower-bed in 

 recej-taces fi r Slegomyia larvx. t rem " Yellow fever and 



of yellow fever, its symptomatology and treatment, 

 pathology, epidemiology, entomology, and prophyl- 

 axis. While forming a treatise for the use of the 

 medical and sanitary oflfice, its style is such that it 

 can be understood by any educated individual, and 

 should thus be of service to Colonial governors and 

 members of legislative assemblies and municipalities 

 of localities where the disease may occur. The 

 author considers that yellow fever is an endemic and 

 indigenous disease of Central, and the northern part 

 of South, America, of the West Indies, and of West 

 Africa, and a record is given of the principal out- 

 breaks occurring there and in other parts during the 

 past two centuries. 



The portion of the book which will probably appeal 

 most to the general reader is that dealing with pro- 

 phylaxis, the prevention of the disease. The 

 epidemiology of yellow fever was a mystery to the 

 older observers, and they were divided into two camps, 

 the "contagionists " and the " non-contagionists," 

 who considered it a "place disease," and in different 

 outbreaks the facts seemed equally favourable to 

 either ; this, of course, was due to the transmission of 



NO. 2204, VOL. 88] 



the disease by the mosquito. The first to direct atten- 

 tion to^ this fact was Beauperthuy (1850-60), who 

 taught in no uncertain manner that the agent which 

 propagated yellow fever was the "house-haunting 

 mosquito." Finlay, of Havanna, came to the same 

 conclusion in 188 1, and undertook direct experiments 

 to substantiate his views, with a certain amount of 

 success, but it was only after years of bitter con- 

 troversy and Ross's discovery of the part played by 

 mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria that the 

 American Commission in 1899 definitely established 

 the role of Stegomyia in the transmission of the 

 disease. The prevention of yellow fever therefore 

 resolves itself into (a) the destruction of Stegomyia 

 by removal of breeding places, " screening " of water 

 receptacles, fumigation of dwellings, oiling of ponds, 

 &'c. ; {h) prevention of mosquito bites by wire-gauze 

 screening of windows and doors so far as possible, 

 and the use of the mosquito net ; and (c) segregation 

 and careful screening' of the sick, so as to prevent 



access and infection of the 

 mosquitoes. Fortunately, 

 in one sense, the Stegomyia 

 mosquito is largely a 

 domestic species, and its 

 breeding places are almost 

 exclusively artificial collec- 

 tions of stagnant water, 

 including all receptacles in 

 which, by accident or 

 design, water is caught, 

 stored, and not repeatedly 

 renewed, such as old pots 

 and tins, flower-pots, 

 tanks, tubs, broken 

 crockery, bottles, &c. 

 Hoyce says he has never 

 found it breeding more 

 than 50 to 100 yards from 

 the abode of man. This 

 fact renders the extermina- 

 tion of this species of mos- 

 quito a far easier matter 

 than in the case of the 

 anophelines which convey 

 malaria. The practical 

 outcome of such anti- 

 mosquito measures may 

 be realised when it is 

 stated that by their adop- 

 tion yellow fever has been 

 completely stamped out in 

 Havanna, which up to 1909 always suffered severely 

 from the disease. The book is admirably illustrated, 

 and concludes with a summary on quarantine ad- 

 ministration. R. T. H. 



Freetown, Sierra Leone, favourite 

 iis Prevention." 



THE JOURNALS OF THE FIRST SURVEYOR- 

 GENERAL OF INDIA.' 

 TN 1906 Sir Rennell Rodd, G.C.V.O., now British 

 ■*■ .Ambassador at Rome, presented to the Victoria 

 Memorial Collection at Calcutta a small quarto 

 volume containing the journal of his great-grandfather. 

 Major James Rennell. F.R.S., which covered a portion 

 of the period which he spent in India. The present 

 editor, Mr. T. H. D. La Touche, was desired by the 

 Director of the Geological Survey of India to see 

 whether it contained anything of geological interest, 

 but though such information is wanting except in so 

 far as striking and important changes have taken 

 place in the courses of rivers in Bengal since Rennell's 



> "The Journals of Major James Rennell, First .Surveyor-Cieneraj of 

 India." Edited by T. H. D. U Touche. Memoir* o» the Anialic Society 

 of Bengal, vol. iii., pp. 95-»48- 



