BRITISH MUSEUM. 11 



on the Advisory Committee appointed by the Home Secretary under 

 the Wild Birds Protection Act ; and much assistance was given to 

 the authorities concerned with the administration of the Plumage Act. 

 Many members of the Museum staff co-operated with various 

 bodies, including the Royal Society and the Ministry of Health, in 

 the preparation of exhibits at the British Empire Exhibition. 



The Museum speciaHsts continued to advise on a great variety of 

 economic problems, and in some cases to conduct special researches 

 into the organisms concerned. Rats and mice received much attention ; 

 and assistance was given in connexion with research on schistosomiasis 

 in East Africa, the Sudan, Mauritius, and elsewhere. Advice was 

 given in regard to an invasion of the public baths of a London borough 

 by the mollusc, Paludestrina jenkinsi. Determinations were made of 

 certain snails and slugs injurious to gardens, and methods of control 

 were suggested. Numerous cases of infestation by mites were investi- 

 gated and the mite Tyroglyphus longior was found to be the culprit 

 under such diverse conditions as in bee hives, in Italian sausages, in a 

 wool and fibre mattress, and on the counter of a chemist's shop. Other 

 mites were found to be responsible for damage to tobacco, oil-cake, 

 lime trees, chickens, and ferns ; and so numerous were appUcations for 

 advice as to the furniture mite that a penny pamphlet dealing with the 

 pest was published. In one case a poultry mite was found to have 

 invaded a house and to have attacked its human occupants. Assistance 

 was given in an attempt to rid the swans in certain London parks of 

 the leeches which infest them. A large number of sea-bottom deposits 

 were investigated and reported upon for the Pacific Cable Board. 



In the Department of Entomology advice continued to be given upon 

 insects affecting agriculture, horticulture, and stored products ; and 

 others injurious to health or productive of discomfort. Among insects 

 attacking wine-corks it was found that in wine-cellars in the City of 

 London the chief is the grub of Oinophila v-fiava, a moth probably 

 introduced from the Canaries when the wine of those Islands 

 was largely imported. Outside the City the worst offender in this res- 

 pect is the grub of BorJchausenia pseudospretella, which probably gains 

 access to the corks through defective sealing. This species does not 

 restrict its depredations to wine corks. It was responsible during 

 the year for very considerable damage in a hop warehouse ; and it 

 frequently attacks textile fabrics. The use of composition boarding 

 in place of plaster for the interior walls of houses was found to have 

 the disadvantage of providing a refuge for bugs and other household 

 pests, from which it is difficult to eradicate them. The occupation of 

 new houses not thoroughly dried out led to many enquiries regarding the 

 insects not infrequently present in such circumstances. The trouble 

 fortunately ceases in most cases as the house dries. Wood-boring 

 beetles continued to form the subject of many applications for advice, 

 and there can be no doubt that widespread damage is being done by 

 the Death Watch Beetle in buildings containing old oak. In spite of 

 forecasts to the contrary, there was no evidence that mosquitoes were 

 unusually numerous in England in 1925. 



Much economic work, mainly connected with fungoid growths, was 

 done in the Department of Botany. Timber suspected of rot and 

 diseased plants were referred to the Museum mj^cologist in large 

 numbers, and he was frequently consulted by research phytopatho- 

 logists in different parts of the country. Much information was given 

 as to fungi causing disease in man, and questions arising in connection 



