190 
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE THEORY AND 
PRACTICE OF DIPPING. 
✓ 
By W. F. COOPER, B.A., and H. E. LAWS, B.Sc., F.I.C. 
(With Plate XII and 2 Text-figures.) 
Introduction. 
That ticks are a very serious trouble in countries where stock forms 
the basis of the wealth of the country is too well known to require 
elaborate demonstration, for the fact that they are the agents of trans¬ 
mission of some of the most fatal and devastating diseases is now 
generally recognised by the stock-farmer. 
As the cure of these diseases, once established, is generally imprac¬ 
ticable, or even, in many cases, impossible, reliance must be placed 
mainly on preventive measures directed to the destruction and eradica¬ 
tion of the vector—the tick. 
It is true that preventive inoculation has been given extensive 
trials, and with some measure of success. In East Coast Fever, for 
instance, inoculation may save some 40 per cent, of infected stock, but 
as inoculation does nothing to reduce the numbers of ticks, young 
stock are as susceptible as ever to infection, and the disease is not 
stamped out. 
Dipping, on the other hand, strikes directly at the prime cause of 
the trouble by destroying the tick, and, provided the operation is 
systematically and properly carried out, afiords the most certain means 
of combating tick-transmitted disease of stock. 
It is our experience that many of the essential points in the process 
of dipping are not understood or realised by those in authority, and, in 
consequence, dipping measures which have been impelled by the 
weight of official recognition have frequently failed to achieve their 
object. We think, therefore, that a resume of the work done in the 
past, with deductions made from the available data, may serve a useful 
purpose. 
