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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

'ग य डा.

Reference :-

wwimmin.C.O.885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Enclosure 1 in No. 28.

REPORT OF THE Department of General Medical ZooloGY (INCLUDING Medical ENTOMOLOGY) FOR THE HALF-YEAR ENDING 31ST OCTOBER, 1920.

DURING the period in report, the department was directed by the under- signed, who from the 1st May to the 31st July also acted as Warden of Studies.

Dr. F. W. O'Connor, the Assistant in the department, being still absent on deputation in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. M. Harvey, I.M.S., acted as Assistant from the 5th May to the 21st July.

The usual courses in medical entomology and in venomous snakes and snake venoms were conducted during the summer.

Work on the breeding and experimental infection of mosquitoes was continued throughout the period in report. After much preliminary disappointment we have succeeded in maintaining a constant supply of Anopheles mosquitoes, our efforts having been very materially assisted by Colonel S. P. James, I.M.S., of the Ministry of Health, to whom we are under great obligations, which must be

recorded here.

Our work on experimental infection was at first carried out under almost natural conditions: Anopheles maculipennis were fed on suitable and willing malaria patients, and were then kept in an open insect-house at the varying temperature and humidity of the atmosphere of the moment. Under such, practic- ally natural, conditions the fate of the malaria parasites within the Anopheles was precarious. For instance, in our most successful experiment, in July-August, only sixty-six per cent. of mosquitoes fed on a patient having gametocytes of the benign testian parasite in his blood developed the infection: moreover, the evolution of the parasite in the mosquito was much prolonged, the term from the moment of the infected feed to the formation of sporozoites in ripe oocysts having been eighteen days. Again, of seven specimens of Anopheles maculipennis fed at that time on a patient carrying crescents in his blood, only one-and that on the twentieth day after--showed any sign of infection, in the form of three very small oocysts.

Our subsequent work, in which we have had the benefit of the co-operation of Lieutenant-Colonel C. A. Gill, I.M.S., and have kept the infected mosquitoes under set constants of temperature and moisture, has given results in most signifi- cant contrast to our earlier observations of the progress of infection under fluctuating meteorological conditions.

Some work has been done in the museum, but there is still much to be done quite apart from necessary efforts at embellishment.

Advice and assistance has been given to correspondents both at home and abroad regarding the identification of and relief from various noxious anthropoda. Many particular complaints have been received of invasions of houses in the south of England by Culex pipiens and Theobaldia annulata, this, no doubt, being attributable to the wetness of the summer.

The Department has to acknowledge, with more than conventional gratitude, donations from the following sources:-

Major Errol Boyd, M.C., R.A.M.C., eggs of Anopheles maculipennis and a supply of freshwater alga for the larvæ; Dr. A. Connal, of the Medical Research Institute, Lagos, eggs of Stegomyia fasciata: Dr. H. M. Hanschell, D.S.C., skin of pig infected with Demodex_Phylloids; Professor R. T. Hewlett, living specimens of Linognathus; Imperial Bureau of Entomology (Dr. G. K. Marshall, C.M.G.), mosquitoes and larvæ; Institute Sorotherapico, Britantan, specimens of antivenone; Lieutenant-Colonel S. P. James, I.M.S., several batches of Anopheles and larvæ; Miss Rhoda Jones, specimens of Hypoderma_vovis: Kasauli Institute, specimens of antivenene; Dr. W. A. Lamborn, Kuala Lumpur, many specimens of several species of Malayan Anopheles; Lieutenant-Colonel W. P. MacArthur, R.A.M.C., specimens of abnormal Calliphora erythrocephala; Mr. Malcolm MacGregor, numerous spemimens of larvæ of Culex and Anopheles, including A. plumbens; Dr. A. K. Moilliet, specimens of Dermatobia hominis; Dr. A. R. Neligan, living specimens of Argas persicus from Mianeh; Professor R. Newstead, F.R.S., speci mens of Phlebotomus minutus and a pupa of P. papatasii; Mr. J. McConnell Sanders, specimens of Lathrodectes mætans; Dr. J. W. Scharff, Tambanidæ, and

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other flies from Malaya; Major J. A. Sinton, V.C., I.M.S., specimens of Phleboto- mus papatasii from the Punjab frontier; Dr. F. E. Whitehead, several consign- ments of living ticks and some bugs from Somaliland.

A. ALCOCK, Lieut.-Colonel, I.M.S. (retired),

Professor of Medical Zoology-

London School of Tropical Medicine,

24th November, 1920.

Addendum to Report of the Director of Medical Entomology for the Half-Year ending 31st October, 1920.

The following gentlemen have been provided with working accommodation in the Department during the last month of the period in report :-

Lieutenant-Colonel Clifford A. Gill, I.M.S., and Dr. J. D. Thomson.

SIR,

Enclosure 2 in No. 26.

Helminthological Department,

London School of Tropical Medicine,

Endsleigh Gardens, N.W.1, 15th November, 1920.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF HELMINTHOLOGY,

I HAVE the honour to present a report on my work for the half-year ending 31st October, 1920. My official duties are those of a teacher and investigator in helminthology, and my whole time has been devoted, during the period under review, to these two duties.

Teaching. The course of lectures and laboratory instruction in helmin- thology, which forms an integral part of the general curriculum of the School, was given by me during the summer session.

No formal advanced course of lectures was held, but two advanced students attended the helminthological laboratory during the summer.

Investigation. With the removal of the Department to Euston Square, the policy of establishing close working relationships with other institutions has been developed, and during the past six months investigations have been carried out by me in association with individual members of the staffs of the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratory, the Royal Naval Medical School, the Royal Army Medical College, Charing Cross Medical School, and the Zoological Gardens.

Grants in aid of special inquiries have been made by the Medical Research Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the British Medical Association. By these and other means the field of inquiry of the Department has been broadened, and additional research workers have been engaged. The Egyptian Government Mission has attached a distinguished graduate of the Cairo Medical School to this Department for a year for research in helminthology.

Two valuable collections have been received (a) from Mr. Norman Hall, M.R.C.V.S., Tanganyika Territory, and (b) from Dr. Bonne, Dutch Guiana. Mr. Hall's collection included a specimen of Dipylidium caninum from a woman, and Dr. Bonne's contributions brought to light a second case of the Nematode Lagocheilascaris minor, which had been previously recorded by me from Trinidad. In this instance the Nematode were evacuated from a mastoid abscess.

With the assistance of Miss M. Turner, M.Sc., a series of microphotographs has been prepared, illustrating the more uncommon eggs which may be met with in human fæces in the Tropics. The application of this method of diagnosis of helminth infection in the living body has been extended to a number of the lower animals. Similar series of microphotographs have been prepared illustrating the various eggs that may be met with in rats, sheep, cattle, cats and dogs, pigs, horses. In view of the intense infestation of domesticated animals with helminth parasites in the Tropics, these results may prove to be of practical importance.

etc.

With Dr. Khalil and Mrs. Philpot, M.Sc., I visited the various tin mines in Cornwall during the month of August to conduct an investigation into the present prevalence of hook-worm. This work was carried out under the auspices of the Medical Research Council.

By courtesy of Dr. George C. Low, Physician to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, cases of Hymenolepis nana and Dibothriocephalus latus were admitted to the hospital, and have afforded material for investigations which are in progress.