138 



EEVIEWS. 

 A TEXT-BOOK OF MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



W. S. Patton and F. W. Cragg ; Madras, Christian Literature 



Society, 1913. Pages xxxiii + 768 ; 89 Plates and 3 



Text-figures. Price Rs. 15-12-0. 



The study of Diseases, especially in the Tropics, of late years has shown 

 very forcibly the highly important part played by Biting Flies, Bugs, Ticks, 

 etc., in the dissemination of the parasitic organisms which cause such 

 diseases, so that some knowledge of Entomology has become an absolute 

 necessity to every medical man. The control of such diseases being as a 

 rule brought about most simply by the control of the insects which convey 

 them from host to host, it follows that some knowledge of the insects 

 concerned must be an essential requisite of everyone who has to deal with 

 cases of such diseases. Hitherto the inquirer, who has wished to acquaint 

 himself with published information regarding the classification, structure 

 and habits of even the commonest and most important of the numerous 

 insects which have already been incriminated as Carriers of Disease to man 

 and animals, has had to rely on compiling information to the best of his 

 ability from the hundreds of text-books and papers, many of which are 

 accessible only with great difliculty and almost all of which are published 

 in various languages and scattered throughout periodicals and reports 

 dealing with entomological, medical, veterinary and sanitary work. It is 

 true that Colonel Alcock's " Entomology for Medical Officers," which 

 appeared some two years ago, provided the first elements of knowledge on 

 the subject, whilst text-books such as Brumpt's " Precis de Parasitologie " 

 have included a short resume of the groups of disease-carrying Arthropods, 

 but the text-book now under review furnishes the first — and up to date 

 the only tolerably complete- — general account of the groups in question, 

 dealing especially with the internal anatomy of the various families, a point 

 of considerable importance to the isolated student who is thrown upon his 

 own resources to investigate the problems of the transmission of pathogenic 

 organisms. 



This Text-book is divided into twelve chapters, the first ten of which deal 

 with the general anatomy and physiology of the blood-sucking Diptera, the 

 classification, structure and bionomics of the various groups of these flies 

 and of the fleas, bugs, lice, ticks, linguatulids and water-fleas; whilst the 

 last two treat of Laboratory Technique and the relations of Arthropoda to 

 their Parasites. 



The description of the general structure of Diptera (pages 8-150) is very 

 complete and must have entailed a vast amount of examination ^nd com- 

 parisons not only of specimens of the flies themselves but of the terminology 

 of the various parts as laid down by diflerent authors. Under the head of 

 Chsetotaxy it might have been advisable to have added a note of warning 

 to the student regarding the variability of some of these hairs. 



In the accounts of the various families of Diptera excellent keys to tha 

 genera and species are provided from the work of Specialists ; these keys 

 are often translated from obscure foreign publications and are therefore 

 doubly useful. Excellent practical notes also occur scattered through more 

 technical descriptions, as where, speaking of Sand flies {Phlebotomus) the 

 authors write, " If a light is kept close to the bed, fewer will enter the net," 

 an observation which may be commended to sufferers from the bites of 

 Sand flies. 



