ENTOMOLOGY

LOUSE BORNE DISEASEStermined. The almost irresistible desire to scratch a louse bite shouldmake louse transmission of any organism taken up from the blood, whichcan successfully pass through the lice in their feces, a very easy matter.In case of typhoid fever, if there is transmission it might be through soilingfingers on crushed lice. This consideration leads me to suggest thatsome one take up the question of louse transmission of gonorrhoea,syphilis, smallpox, and other diseases, giving special attention to inoculationof infected feces.fl9111. Diseases of U'Ilknortm or Uncertain Orig~BERI-BERI.-l\:Ianson (1909) has advanced the hypothesis that licemay possibly transmit beri-beri or polyneuritis, a disease whose cause isundetermined. Bradford, Bashford, and \Vilson (1919) have found afilterable virus in acute infective polyneuritis. Daniels conducted anunsuccessful attempt in transmitting beri-beri from man to an orangoutangby means of lice, due probably to the inability of the lice to liveon the host. (Castcllani and Chalmers, p. 1!16.) He did not attemptinoculation of the feces, apparently expecting. to convey the disease by thelouse bite. The majority of writers treat beri-beri as a nutritional diseasedue to absence of vitamiries.TYPHUS FEVER.-Acting on the suggestion of Sergent and Foleyin Algeria, the transmission of typhus fever by the louse was first provenby Nicolle, Comte, and Conseil (1909) working in Tunis. They successfullytransmitted typhus from monkey to monkey by means of the bites ofinfected lice (Pediculus corporis) that had fed on a typhus fever patient1-7 days previously. A few months later Ricketts and Wilder (1910)working independently in Mexico reported successful infection of monkeysthat were bitten by Pediculus corporis previously fed on typhus patients,and they also infected monkeys by placing the gut contents of such lice onscarified skin, three days after the lice had fed upon a typhus monkey.Shortly thereafter Ricketts succumbed to an attack of typhus.Further proofs of transmission of typhus fever by louse bites werepublished by Wilder (1911), Goldberger (1912), and Anderson and Goldberger(191fl); proofs of transmission by inoculation of crushed licewere published by Wilder (1911), Goldberger (191!), Prowazek (1918)and Nicolle, Blanc, and Conseil (1914). The last named authors provedthat the feces of lice when inoculated were infective at least 6 days afterthe lice had fed on a typhu~ fever patient. .Wilder (1911), Sergent, Foley, and Vialatte (1914) and Do. Rocha­Lima (1916) claim that typlms fever is hereditarily transmitted by lice,but Anderson and Goldberger (1912) and Nicolle, Blanc, and Conseil(1914) hold that there is no proof of heredit~ry transmission.