In my “Revision of the Genus Stilesia” I had to leave several points in the anatomy of Stilesia globipunctata (Riv.) undecided, as the material I had of the worm was too macerated to allow of any definite conclusions. At the same time I pointed out, that the topography of the male canals as described by Stiles and Hassall disagreed with the conditions obtaining in Stilesia hepatica Wolffhügel, in other respects a very closely related species. The necessity for a re-examination of Stilesia globipunctata (Riv.) in order to decide whether the differences really exist, or whether they were supposed to do so, on account of the material examined by Stiles being rather macerated (loc. cit. p. 74), was all the greater as Stilesia globipunctata (Riv.) is the type species of the genus Stilesia. Through the kindness of Mr Littlewood, Chief Inspector of the Veterinary Department, I was able to obtain living examples of Stilesia globipunctata (Riv.) at the Cairo abattoir on Jan. 27, 1912. These worms have been fixed with Zeuker's solution, hardened and cut.

The general structure and aspects of the development of the ovaries of the palaeacanthocephalan Corynosoma semerme were studied by transmission electron microscopy using worms varying in age from 18 to 90 h obtained from experimental primary infections in hydrocortisone-treated rats instead of seals, which serve as the natural definitive hosts. The observations can be interpreted to show that the immature ovaries become transformed relatively rapidly from cellular spheres to the more complex mature ovaries consisting of the supporting and oogonial syncytia and the germ-line cells. The supporting syncytium developed before the oogonial syncytium. The cytological appearance of ovaries from worms from rats was found to be similar to that of ovaries from mature worms of unknown age from naturally infected seals. Ecological evidence is considered to suggest that the rapid maturation of C. semerme in rats may also occur when the parasite becomes established in seals.

Consideration of the outbreak of fever at Morib in Selangor, Federated Malay States, impresses us with the great practical importance of obtaining an exact comparative infectivity table of the various anophelines, compiled on a comprehensive basis; it is only by accurate study of a disease and the factors responsible for it, that it can be successfully combated.

At Morib we can only rely on general considerations and conclude that the species ludlowi has been causing most of the trouble.

It would seem that the reason that hill-land malaria in Malaya, and perhaps India, is so difficult to get, rid of is because it is conveyed by mosquitoes of high infectivity and low prevalence, whereas low-land malaria can be easily allayed because it is conveyed by mosquitoes of low infectivity and high prevalence. It is a corollary to this that if malaria in any community can be easily allayed, it is caused by mosquitoes which possess low infectivity.

Patrick Alfred Buxton was born in Hyde Park Street, Paddington, on 24 March 1892, and died at his home in Gerrards Cross, Bucks, on 13 December 1955. His father was Alfred Fowell Buxton, a busy banker and one time chairman of the London County Council, his mother was Violet Jex-Blake.

No drug has been found which will influence the fatal course of East Coast Fever or retard the multiplication of Theileria parva in the blood of the affected cattle.

The drugs which were tried with negative results were Trypanblue, Congo red, Tryposafrol, Creosote and Oleum copaivae, Arsacetin, Soamin, “606,” Emetine hydrochloride, Mercury salicylate, Mercury succinimide, Quinine bihydrochloride and hydrochloride, Ethylhydrocupreine, Ammonium fluoride, Potassium iodide, Sodium salicylate, Calcium lactate, and Nuclein.

All of our animals died—18 treated and 3 untreated—and showed typical lesions at autopsy. They were all infected by means of ticks (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus) which had fed on infected cattle as larvae and nymphs and been placed on the experimental animals as nymphs and adults respectively.

The increase in the number of parasitized red blood corpuscles, but for slight irregularities, proceeds continuously night and day until the animal dies. We have not as yet observed a case ending in recovery.

The accompanying table gives a summary relating to each experimental animal (except XII): the number and kind of ticks which produced infection, the incubation period, the time when the parasites appeared in the peripheral blood, the time when the animals died, and the maximum percentage of parasitized blood corpuscles observed during the course of the disease. The days are all reckoned from Day 1 when the infective ticks were placed upon the cattle.

The systematic position of the blood-sucking Gamasides Leach, 1815, is still very unsatisfactory. In his work on external parasites, Ewing (1929) recognizes the two families Parasitidae and Dermanyssidae, distinguishing them chiefly by the form of the chelicerae. The former family to which Laelaps and related genera belong is defined by Ewing as follows: ‘chelicerae of a generalized type having the tips incurved and being provided with teeth, and the fixed arm usually bearing a seta near its tip’. The Dermanyssidae have modified chelicerae, ‘usually without teeth and fixed arm always without setae’. In this family Ewing puts the genera Liponyssus, Dermanyssus and related ones.

A number of experiments was carried out on Polycercus lumbrici to induce evagination of the cysticercoid in vitro. The results indicate that in nature the containing cyst is ruptured by pressure and abrasion in the gizzard of the bird host and that evagination is induced mainly by the action of gastric juice followed by pancreatic juice, heat assisting the process by exciting vigorous movements in the larvae. By a process of elimination it has been shown that the effective agents are the pepsin in the gastric juice and pancreatin in the pancreatic juice. The latter probably causes contraction of the muscles of the wall of the caudal vesicle which forces out the scolex.

The somatic muscle of Ascaris suum is principally under the excitatory control of neuromuscular junction transmitter, acetylcholine (ACh). However, it has recently been shown that neuropeptides also play an important role in the motor-nervous system and one of these, AF3 (AVPGVLRFamide), also contracts muscle. The events which trigger contraction to ACh and AF3 would appear to be different, with ACh activating a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor whilst the response to AF3 is most likely to involve a G-protein coupled receptor negatively coupled to adenylate cyclase. In order to further elucidate differences in the cellular signalling pathways through which ACh and AF3 elicit muscle contraction, we investigated the actions of protein kinase C inhibitors, tamoxifen and chelerythrine, on the dorsal somatic muscle strip of A. suum. Contractions in response to 1 μM AF3 were potentiated by 17% in the presence of 10 μM tamoxifen (P<0·05; n=8); however, contractions in response to 10 μM ACh were markedly inhibited (tamoxifen IC50 44±18 μM; n=6). Tamoxifen also blocked muscle cell depolarizations to 5 μM ACh (IC50 4±1 μM; n=6) and 1 μM levamisole (IC50 14±6 μM; n=4). This was unlikely to be a non-specific effect on the membrane as hyperpolarizations to 10 μM GABA were unaffected (93% of control with 10 μM tamoxifen; n=6; P>0·05). However, another inhibitor of mammalian protein kinase C, chelerythrine, did not affect the response either to ACh or AF3 (n=6).

N, N′-bis (3,4 ditrifluoromethylphenyl) methylmalonamide (Sch18545) completely controlled a mild Eimeria necatrix infection at 50, 40 or 30 p.p.m. in the diet, and controlled E. tenella infections at 50 and 40 p.p.m. Slight oocyst passage was observed at each E. tenella treatment level with a marked increase at the 30 p.p.m. treatment level. Fifty p.p.m. were necessary to control E. acervulina infections; levels of 40 p.p.m. reduced E. acervulina oocyst production while 30 p.p.m. were ineffective. Evaluations of Sch 18545 using a mixed infection (Coccivac D®) further suggested that activity with this compound was weakest against E. acervulina. Weight gains decreased with increasing concentration of drug in the diet of treated, infected birds and thus the compound showed an insufficient safety margin to be of practical value. Sch 18545 administered at 35 p.p.m. in the diet was effective against amprolium, zoalene, aklomide or nicarbazin-resistant strains of E. tenella.

Many basic data relating to the ecology of ticks are known, thanks mainly to the studies of Hunter, Bishopp and others on North American ticks.

The existence of trypanosomiasis amongst the ruminants of Turkestan has been suspected for many years, but the first definite record is that of Liihs (f906) who discovered Trypanosoma theileri in the blood of cattle in Transcaucasia. This was followed by the discovery of the same parasite in the Trans-Baikal Region (Dudukaloff), the Don Province (Stolnikoff) and in the Pskov and Vitebsk Governments (Yakimoff and Bekensky). Wrublewski found this trypanosome in the blood of bison from the Bieloviejsky forests and later it was discovered by Yakimoff in Turkestan.

Psilochasmus oxyurus, type species of the genus Psilochasmus Lühe, 1909, has been redescribed from whole mounts and transverse, horizontal and sagittal sections. Twenty-five worms from one common mallard, Anas platyrhynchos L. and 12 from one greater scaup, Nyroca marila L. are considered as conspecific with P. oxyurus, although they show some variations in body size and shape of the testes. Of the other eight known species of Psilochasmus, five have already been synonymized and the remaining three, namely, P. indicus Gupta, 1957, P. alii Jaiswal, 1957, and P. megacetabulus Jaiswal, 1957, are declared synonyms of P. oxyurus.

The biochemical characteristics of phenol oxidase obtained from Penetrocephalus ganapatii have been investigated using manometric and electrophoretic techniques. Phenol oxidase was found to have maximum activity at pH 7·4, the Michaelis constant for dopamine was 189 μM and the enzyme was stable between 20 and 40°C. Potassium cyanide, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate and phenylthiourea strongly suppressed enzyme activity. The Ki values for potassium cyanide, diethyldithiocarbamate and phenylthiourea were 33μM, 700 μM and 938 μM respectively. The properties of soluble and insoluble enzymes to various phenolic substrates are discussed.

From various parts of the world I have recently received a number of mites taken from bats, and the present paper gives descriptions and figures of five new species—one new species of the genus Ancystropus; two new species of the genus Spinturnix; one in the genus Hirstesia and the last in the genus Foliomyobia.

While examining the strongyles of the fourth stomach of an ewe belonging to the Cambridge University Farm, which had been slaughtered for post-mortem examination, numerous male and female Ostertagia circumcincta (Strongylus cervicornis of MacFadyean) were found. A few specimens of Haemonchus contortus were also present.