162 Journal oj Agricultural Research voi.xxi.no. a 
ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
Another body of literature on carbon tetrachlorid which may be only 
briefly mentioned here is that covering its use as an insecticide. Smith 
( 20 ), in 1867, noted that chloroform dropped on the head of test insects 
killed them, whereas carbon tetrachlorid had only a transient, bad effect 
on them, the insects recovering. Britton in 1908 used it for scale insects 
on nursery trees. Morse in 1910 used it against insects in grain and in 
natural-history specimens and concluded that it required twice as much 
of it as of carbon bisulphid. Pettit, Yothers, and Shafer tested it in 
1910, and the report was published by Shafer in 1915. They found that 
it required six times as much carbon tetrachlorid as it did of carbon 
bisulphid to kill the test insects. It was also reported on by Chittenden 
and Popenoe in 1911, and by Garman in 1913. McClintock, Hamilton, 
and Towe reported in 1911 that it was one-fifth as insecticidal as sulphur 
dioxid, chloroform being somewhat more effective than carbon tetra¬ 
chlorid and carbon bisulphid comparing more favorably with sulphur 
dioxid in insecticidal efficacy. Moore in 1917 published a study of vola¬ 
tility and toxicity in which he finds the volatility of carbon bisulphid, 
chloroform, and carbon tetrachlorid, in terms of gram molecules evapo¬ 
rating in 400 minutes, to be, respectively, 1.3616, 1.2870, and 0.7067, 
the carbon tetrachlorid being distinctly the least volatile; the respective 
toxicities, in terms of millionths of a gram molecule killing in 400 
minutes, were 286.3, 894.6, and 161.9, carbon tetrachlorid being dis¬ 
tinctly the least toxic. The test animal was the house fly. Very 
similar results in regard to the relative toxicity of these three compounds 
were published by Moore and Graham in 1918. During the war carbon 
tetrachlorid was noted as an effective insecticide for lice by Foster, 
Zucker, Galewsky, Alessandrini, and Hase. Dunn prefers it to chloro¬ 
form for application to wounds, etc., infested with screw worm, but 
Bishopp finds it less satisfactory than chloroform. 
PROPERTIES OF CARBON TETRACHLORID 
In connection with its use as an anthelmintic, the points of interest 
covered in the literature noted are as follows: Carbon tetrachlorid is less 
volatile than chloroform or carbon bisulphid and is less toxic to insects 
than either; it does not seem to diminish the tone or contractility of 
unstriated musculature. Additional points in regard to this drug, in 
comparison with chloroform and carbon bisulphid, which have direct 
bearing on its anthelmintic action are as follows: Chloroform is soluble 
in 161 parts of water at 22 0 C., carbon bisulphid in 526 parts at 25 0 , and 
carbon tetrachlorid in 1,250 parts at 25°, carbon tetrachlorid being dis¬ 
tinctly less soluble in water than either of the other substances. Carbon 
bisulphid boils at 46.25°, chloroform at 61.2°, and carbon tetra¬ 
chlorid at 76.74°, carbon tetrachlorid boiling at a temperature 15° to 30° 
