The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Volume s1-13, Issue 3, 1933

• 1.  Neurotropic yellow fever virus contained in Berkefeld N filtrates of infectious brain material was transferred by direct brain to brain inoculation through four passages in Saimiri sciureus, producing in each animal a well marked encephalitis characterized by a uniform clinical course and definite pathological lesions. The virus recovered from the brain of the last monkey in the series could be positively identified as yellow fever virus by passive immunity tests in mice.
• 2.  A clinically and pathologically characteristic encephalitis was produced in Ateleus monkeys by the intracerebral inoculation of neurotropic yellow fever virus. The virus could be recovered from the brain or sciatic nerve at the death of the monkey and, when injected intracerebrally into a rhesus monkey or into mice, produced typical yellow fever virus encephalitis.
• 3.  Neurotropic yellow fever virus contained in Berkefeld N filtrates of infectious cerebral tissues was carried by intracerebral inoculation through two passages in Cebus frontatus, causing in each animal an encephalitis which ran a typical clinical course and produced characteristic lesions. The virus could be isolated from the brain and adrenal gland at the time of the death of the monkey.
• 4.  Neurotropic yellow fever virus, contained in Berkefeld N filtrates of infectious brain substance, was transferred by intracerebral inoculation through three passages in Callithrix monkeys, with the production of a uniformly fatal encephalitis.
• 5.  The intracerebral inoculation of Leontocebus ursulus with neurotropic yellow fever virus was followed by a febrile reaction and in some instances by neurological symptoms and death, with the presence of small perivascular infiltrations in the brain. No success was attained in a limited attempt to transfer the virus in series in L. ursulus.

The status of the available data regarding the transmission of the Plasmodium malariae has recently been critically reviewed by Gordon and Davey (1), who point out that the only satisfactory record is the report by Stephens and Christopher (2) of gland infection obtained in two of six A. culicifacies fed on four persons with quartan malaria in India.

The evaluation of the records in the literature made by Gordon and Davey was based on the following criteria: (a) The mosquitoes used must have been laboratory bred, or obtained in a district free from any suspicion of malaria; (b) sporozoite infection of the salivary glands must have been obtained; (c) great care must have been taken to exclude the possibility of mixed infection in the host. With the exception noted, they reject all recorded claims to successful transmission of P. malariae by anophelines, and express surprise that the various claims should rest on such a small basis of fact.

• 1.  A study has been made of animal susceptibility to the equine trypanosome of Panama (T. hippicum) using as many wild and domestic animals as could be collected that are found in contact with horses and mules in the stable, pastures or on the trails.
• 2.  The only animals in the series studied that disclosed a spontaneous infection with T. hippicum were the horse, mule and cattle.
• 3.  Cattle that had ranged with a herd of horses and mules during an epidemic of this equine trypanosomiasis were examined a few months after the last case had appeared. The blood films of the cattle did not reveal trypanosomes but the use of 2 to 4 cc. of blood injected into the peritoneal cavity of a guinea pig disclosed the fact that 4.5 per cent of the cattle were light carriers of T. hippicum. The strain recovered from the cattle developed the usual clinical picture of murrina in the two horses tested and killed them in the usual period of time. A calf was experimentally given the infection and was positive to guinea pig inoculation over a period of about four months. It developed no symptoms and recovered spontaneously.
• 4.  Other susceptible animals in the series capable of carrying a light infection a long time and ending in a spontaneous recovery were the hog, sheep and goat.
• 5.  Susceptible animals in the list that ran a prolonged course ending in death were the domestic cat, the white tailed deer, the brocket deer, the collared peccary or wild hog.
• 6.  Most wild and domestic animals can be experimentally infected and killed in a few weeks. The chicken was the only refractory experiment in the series.
• 7.  This form of trypanosomiasis is distinctly a disease of the solipeds, particularly of the horse and mule. The fact that cattle can carry T. hippicum for a long period of time without injury and that cattle range in large numbers with horses and mules at night as well as day throughout the Republic makes these animals probably the most important reservoir in maintaining the presence of the disease in our region. The vampire bat feeds with equal freedom on equine and bovine animals and they live for almost a month after they acquire the infection and suffer no loss of appetite for blood meals until within a few hours of death.

At repeated sessions of the Permanent Committee of the International Office of Public Hygiene problems of the sanitary control of air navigation have received consideration, and it has increasingly become apparent that any set of just and reasonable regulations must be predicated upon facts established through researches and studies of factors relating to air traffic.

Realizing the necessity for investigations on the subject, the United States Public Health Service began on July 23, 1931, the inspection, for the presence of mosquitoes aboard, of all aircraft 1 arriving at Miami, Florida, from foreign and insular ports. Strange enough, the first mosquito caught was an Aedes aegypti (male) on July 28, on the ship coming from San Salvador, El Salvador, C. A. with landings at Tela, Honduras; Belize, B. H., Merida and Cozumel, Yucatan. From July 23 to September 12, 1931, there were 102 inspections of airplanes just arrived at Miami from points in Panama, Central and South America, the West Indies, Cuba and Mexico.

The results of titrations indicate that preservation of yellow fever immune serum by rapid desiccation in vacuo and in the frozen state causes no titrable reduction (by the methods of experiment) in the “immune protecting antibody” content after storage at refrigerator temperatures for a period of five months.

• 1.  Microfilaria ozzardi was found in the blood of 44.5 per cent of 119 Indians examined in the Tuira River basin, Darien Province, Panama.
• 2.  The infection rate in native villages in the same region varied from 2 to 57 per cent and averaged 9.9 per cent in the 244 natives examined.
• 3.  A few cases of infection with M. ozzardi were found in the Chagres River valley, Panama, but all of these were recent arrivals from the Atrato River valley, Colombia.
• 4.  No evidence was found that M. ozzardi is pathogenic or in any way a significant problem of public health importance.
• 5.  Southeastern Panama is an endemic center of infection with M. ozzardi heretofore unknown in the geographical distribution of the parasite.

• 1.  A survey for intestinal protozoa was made of 401 freshmen in a Philadelphia college. About 95 per cent came from homes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and few had traveled extensively.
• 2.  A single normal stool was examined for each person, stained slides being employed as well as fresh smears in saline and iodine. The stained slides revealed 167 protozoan infestations as against 147 for the fresh smears and the two methods combined yielded 176.
• 3.  One or more species of protozoa were found in 33.1 per cent of the students, 4.5 per cent being carriers of Endamoeba histolytica and 3.5 per cent harboring Dientamoeba fragilis.
• 4.  Only one of the carriers of E. histolytica suffered from symptoms which might be attributed to the presence of the amoeba.

During my first year of practice in Atlanta I treated three patients with aggravated amebic diarrhea. From this experience dates my interest in amebiasis. My opinion that this disease is of medical and economic importance in Georgia has steadily grown.

In this paper is presented (a) a review of the epidemiology of amebiasis; (b) statistics from the hospitals in several of the larger Southern cities relative to the number of cases of amebiasis diagnosed in the five-year period of 1927 to 1931, inclusive. The number of cases occurring in urban and rural communities and the incidence of amebiasis in 1103 private patients is reported.

Epidemiology. Amebiasis is endemic rather than epidemic and is one of the widest spread diseases that we know. For this reason the factors having to do with its dissemination are variable in different localities and difficult to determine. Man becomes infected by swallowing material containing the encysted form of the endameba.

As a result of feeding pigeon peas Cajan cajan (L) Millsp. to rats on an anemia-producing diet the following conclusions seem justified:

• 1.  Gandules or pigeon peas exhibit curative properties in this type of anemia.
• 2.  Fresh peas show greater regeneration than the ash of equivalent quantities, when both are fed at levels suboptimal for normal hemoglobin regeneration.
• 3.  It is suggested that experiments designed to produce less than maximum regeneration may show differences in the efficiency of various foods and perhaps throw light on the question of the rôle of inorganic versus organic constituents in hemoglobin formation.

Sprue in the temperate zone is attracting more and more attention. For this reason Thaysen's exhaustive work is very appropriate and timely.

Besides a short introduction in which the author traces briefly the history of the Gee-Herter disease or “coeliac affection” and its similarity but definite distinction from the sprue symptomatology, the book is divided into 25 chapters the last of which contains the records of known and undoubted cases. The remaining sections are devoted to a minute consideration of the various phases of sprue, together with the effects observed on the organs or as the case may be the resultant glandular dysfunctions accompanying the disease.

The nervous system, bones, joints and muscles come up for discussion while the skin, circulatory system, liver, pancreas and ductless glands are not forgotten.

Of course interest is focused on the disturbance of gastro-intestinal functions, and this includes exhaustive examinations of the stomach and duodenal secretions and feces.

Smith's Atlas is a very welcome addition to the subject of tropical skin diseases. The text is brief and concise, but not unnecessarily so. The plates comprising the 258 figures are excellent and well selected and the publishers are to be congratulated on their successful reproduction.

This book will heartily recommend itself, especially to all medical men and others who have directly to do with clinical conditions among African natives.