F. W. Flattely 277 
as was imperative if any definite conclusion was to be drawn as to the con¬ 
ditions favouring infection. 
Lambs are slaughtered for the market at a very tender age around Home 
—at two to three weeks old, in fact. Advantage of this was taken to endeavour 
to fix how soon after birth it was possible to get direct evidence of infection. 
A most careful examination was made with a lens of a number of intestines of 
lambs a fortnight old but failed to reveal any scolices. I was therefore forced 
to conclude that infection had not yet occurred. Curtice took some very small 
individuals about 2 mm. long (which he figures) from a lamb, but does not 
state the latter’s age. The point is not perhaps of fundamental importance for, 
as we have already seen, we are bound to infer that infection takes place at 
a very early stage. 
A point worth mentioning is that I learned from the Roman abattoirs 
that whereas lambs from the Campagna Romana and Sardinia are regularly 
infected with tapeworm, those from the Marches of Ancona, from Romagna 
(Ravenna), Perugia and Umbria, where the sheep are stable reared, are free 
from infection. How far this statement can be relied on it is difficult to say. 
Dr Ztirn, on the other hand (1882), states that the disease also occurs among 
sheep which have been fed entirely in the stalls, but more especially among the 
younger and youngest of a flock which are put to graze. 
OBSERVATIONS ON MONIEZIA IN THE ABERDEEN AREA. 
There are very few flocks in the country immediately round Aberdeen 
and none of which any history of infection could be procured. Through the 
kind offices of Mr W. Brown, M.R.C.V.S., Lecturer in Veterinary Science at 
the University, I was able to get in touch with a farm in Forfarshire where a 
certain amount of infection was known to occur with fair regularity. I visited 
the farm in March, 1919, when lambing was well begun and examined the 
fleece of a number of ewes for ectoparasites, paying particular attention to the 
belly region, but found no signs of any parasites: keds, lice, etc. whatever. 
A closer scrutiny of a quantity of wool which was removed to the laboratory 
also proved fruitless. The farmer himself was confident that none would be 
found, his being pedigree sheep living under ideal conditions. It is a distinct 
disadvantage in connection with this research that while one is compelled to 
look for the agent of infection in February—March, it is not till three months 
later that one gets to know whether infection has actually been heavy, light, 
or absent. This is one reason why it is essential to conduct one’s researches 
on a farm where infection is not sporadic but is known to occur regularly year 
after year. This notwithstanding, one may go so far as to say that here was 
a farm where ectoparasites would probably be at a minimum and which never¬ 
theless had a fairly regular history of infection. The fact seems significant. 
There seems to be only one plausible reason why infection occurred fairly 
regularly on this particular farm, viz. the fact that lambing was always carried 
out in the same meadow, which was therefore likely to be heavily infected with 
