REVIEWS. 
After recovery from an attack, there appears to be a degree of 
protection. Protective inoculation rapidly affords protection (sixth 
day), but the duration and degree are subject to variation, and depend 
largely on the animal. Inoculation is extensively used in Queensland, 
but has not yet been found necessary in New South Wales. 
’ The ‘Tick—Margaropus (Boophilus) australis, is stated to be a 
different species from the Texas Fever tick M. (B.) annulatus. The 
mature female falls to the ground, and lays its eggs after a time of rest 
(two to ten days summer, two to three weeks winter). She may lay up to 
5,000 eggs. These hatch to the important stage, known as the larval 
tick or “seed tick,’ which has only three pairs of legs. It is this 
larval stage that mostly transmits the parasite of tick fever, having been 
infected through the egg from the adult female. The parasitism is 
so perfect that the larval tick now requires its particular host, otherwise 
it dies, though it may live as long as six or eight months (American 
results). We shall not follow it through its various moults to adult, 
but pass on to one of the most striking chapters, which gives some 
estimate of the enormous loss caused by the tick. These are treated 
under such heads as mortality, diminished leather value, meat produc- 
tion, and milk yield, money expended in controlling and eradication, 
loss on.secondary industries, depreciation of land, &c. ' 
We find that from mortality there is over £500,000 loss a year. In 
Queensland, the depreciation in leather value is as much as £100,000 
a year. Depreciation of milk supply varies from 18 to 40 per cent. 
The costs of control work for New South Wales for five years were 
£123,000. If the enormous toll of the tick pest could be expressed in 
figures, the total amount involved would stagger the community. In 
the United States.of America, it is estimated that the annual loss varies 
from £8,000,000 to £20,000,000. 
The concluding section outlines the general methods in use for 
eradication. The tick may be attacked either during its existence on 
the pastures or during its parasitic development on its host. The second 
is the one adopted here, and the methods that can be used are :— 
(1) Hand-picking and grooming; (2) Hand-dressing and spray- 
ing; (3) Dipping. 
The most expeditious and efticacious method is dipping. It is the 
only practical method of treating unhandled cattle and horses. Arsenic 
is the most reliable tick-destroying agent, and there are several official 
formule. The results so far achieved, and the legislative Acts adopted 
in United States of America, New South Wales, Queensland, and 
Western Australia are described. 
When we consider that in 1906 there were 750,000 square miles 
of the United States of America under quarantine, and up to 1912 a 
- total of 163,000. square miles were cleared; and that during the war - 
no less than 150,000 square miles were cleared in 1917-18; that the 
cattle of Mississippi increased from 86,000 in 1914 to 156,000 in 1916; 
and that now only 270,000 square miles of territory in the United States 
~ of America remain to be cleaned, it is to be hoped Australia will awake 
to the possibilities of clearing out such a pest, adopting some motto like 
“that of the southern United: States of America (“A Tick-free South 
in 1928”), and endeavour to act up to it. 
251 
