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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1048 



the relative inaccessibility of tlie pertinent 

 entomological literature. It is widely scat- 

 tered in expensive journals of restricted cir- 

 culation, often out of print, and very generally 

 not to be had under any circumstances by 

 workers on the firing line of research in the 

 tropics far from libraries. To investigate even 

 the commonest insects such as the house fly, 

 the flea, the louse and the bed bug, requires an 

 extensive and expensive library and when this 

 is in hand the entomological novice is all too 

 often nonplussed by the exasperating hiatuses 

 in the information available and still more 

 by the perplexing confusion in technical 

 anatomical nomenclature as for example in 

 the case of the wing veins of insects, and the 

 parts of the thorax of the house fly. Text- 

 books of entomology contain so little of the 

 data essential to the workers in the fields of 

 preventive and comparative medicine that 

 they are practically useless as aids to the in- 

 quiring specialist. 



This need (which has grown so rapidly in 

 recent years) of an adequate text-book in this 

 field bids fair to be very adequately met by 

 Drs. Patton and Cragg's "Medical Entomol- 

 ogy." The book is itself a product of this need 

 of this frontier of science, for it has been pro- 

 duced by two experienced workers in the Indian 

 Medical Service, and has been adequately 

 illustrated and well printed in India. 



The reader might perhaps infer from this 

 that the book was a provincial one adapted 

 to the locality of its origin. The insects with 

 which it deals are most of them cosmopolitan, 

 often to genera, and in many important in- 

 stances, as in the fly, flea, louse and some 

 mosquitoes, even to species. But far more 

 important than the objective cosmopolitanism 

 of the work is the broad and comprehensive 

 outlook of the authors and their very sincere 

 and painstaking effort manifest throughout 

 the work, to make the book widely useful, 

 soundly accurate, fairly complete, and wisely 

 proportioned. The result is a treatise which 

 will be indispensable to every worker in med- 

 ical entomology in tropical or temperate lands. 



It treats in extenso of insect morphology, 

 drawing its material from those genera and 



species of medical importance with especial 

 emphasis upon the Diptera. The classifica- 

 tion is likewise carefully worked out with 

 detailed treatment where significant, as for 

 example in the case of those most concerned 

 or under suspicion as carriers, such as the 

 Psychodidas, Tabanus, Anopheles, Siegomyia, 

 OEstrid larvse, Musca and Glossina. The life- 

 history, breeding habits, seasonal prevalence, 

 relation to environmental factors and the 

 methods of collecting, rearing and feeding are 

 carefully noted and the pitfalls which await 

 the inexperienced worker are very frequently 

 pointed out. One chapter is devoted to the 

 fleas, one to the Ehynchota or bugs, and an- 

 other which will be especially welcomed, to 

 the Anoplura or lice. In every case the treat- 

 ment is not restricted to known carriers, but 

 others which are equally wont to fall into the 

 hands of inquiring specialists are included. 

 The known relations to disease are cited as in 

 the many species of Anopheles, and the types 

 of parasites known to occur in the insect, their 

 location in the body, and in the life history, 

 and the modes of infection, in fact the full 

 medical bionomics of host and parasite are 

 all briefly summarized. 



The Acari and Pentastomida receive a full 

 discussion, especially the first-named group, 

 and there is a brief and rather inadequate 

 section (the last) devoted to Cyclops in rela- 

 tion to the guineaworm. A closing chapter 

 deals with those special forms of technique 

 in the preparation of Arthropodan tissues 

 and organs for microscopical examination 

 which are supplementary to the usual lines of 

 instruction given in medical education. 



Brief bibliographies of the most important 

 papers, synoptic keys of large groups such as 

 Anopheles, by locality, for example of the 

 Philippine Islands, simple but clear and ade- 

 quate and fairly abundant illustrations, a fuU 

 index, and a well organized and clearly written 

 text all combine to render very useful an ex- 

 cellent scientific treatise. The defects due to 

 inadequate editing in matters of correlation 

 of references and in elimination of some ob- 

 scurities of statement, to incomplete or in- 

 conveniently located explanations of figures. 



