300 Transmission of Trypanosoma lewisi 
perhaps appear to be developmental stages of trypanosomes in inverte¬ 
brate hosts 1 . 
Captain Patton, informs me that shortly after the 
publication of Prowazek’s paper on the development of T. lewisi in 
H. spinulosus, he endeavoured to observe a similar development of 
T. lewisi in rat lice ( Haematopinus sp.) in Madras. Beyond being able 
as we have done to recover the unchanged or degenerated trypanosomes 
he failed to find any of the stages described by Prowazek. Fleas 
{Loemopsylla cheopis Rothschild) also gave negative results on 
examination. Similar experiments with lice and fleas taken from the 
palm squirrel ( Funambulus palmar urn) infected with Trypanosoma 
indicum gave negative results. 
In a preliminary note which has just been published by Mauteufel 
(27. x. 1908) this author reports upon similar experiments. He 
states that he has been able to transmit T. lewisi by means of 
H. spinulosus, but gives no particulars regarding his investigations, 
reserving these for a paper which is to appear in the Arb. a. d. Kaiserl. 
Gesundheitsamte. He has in addition established the important fact that 
H. spinulosus is capable of transmitting Spirochaeta recurrentis from 
infected to healthy rats. 
A series of 26 Mus decumanus which we carefully examined for 
T. lewisi and ectoparasites (30. x. to 3. xii. 1908) gave the following 
results : 
Ectoparasites present 
3 harboured T. lewisi 
14 showed no trypanosomes 
1 
6 ,, 
Fleas only (15, 11, 1). 
Fleas (11) and lice (2). 
No fleas nor lice. 
Lice on all of them. 
Flea (1) present. 
No ectoparasites. 
The trypanosome rats all came from one locality, the uninfected 
rats came from three other localities. These observations again demon¬ 
strate the local character of the infection and support the view that 
fleas are the usual agents concerned in the transmission of the trypa¬ 
nosome. In a future paper we shall deal more fully with this aspect 
of the problem. 
The experiments above recorded clearly demonstrate that T. lewisi 
is transmitted from rat to rat by means of Ceratophyllus fasciatus, 
Ctenopthalmus agyrtes and Haematopinus spinulosus. 
1 This aspect of the problem is discussed in another paper by Patton and Strickland 
in this number of Parasitology. 
