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Although a large number of tubes have been despatched to nearly all
parts of India, including Native States, up to the present, no data have reached
this office, on which to form an opinion as to the value of the method.
South African observers note that experience has shown them that fungus
does not act well in droughts. With arsenic in different forms, white arsenic
or Paris green-made up according to different formulæ, successful results have
been recorded. Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, Government Entomologist, writes as
follows:—
" The American formula for bran-arsenic wash has frequently been given. Briefly it is
pound for pound of white arsenic and sugar, with six pounds of bran and enough water to
make a soft wash. It is scattered about in spoonful lots in the midst of the vegetation
visited by the pest . . . . . . . Highly successful returns have been published
with regard to the use of shredded sugarcane chopped to inch lengths and soaked for three
or four minutes in a solution of a pound of arsenic in 5 gallons of water. An equally successful
formula is this, boil equal parts of white arsenic and caustic soda together and dilute the
resulting solution to about 36 gallons for each pound of arsenic contained and to this add 80
pounds of sugar, grass corn stalks or other material edible to locusts is dipped in the poison
and spread about in likely places ; locusts are said to come 100 yards to this poisoned sweet.
When arsenic is applied to vegetation of value; it should be in the form of a practically
insoluble compound such as Paris green. This material dissolves in the digestive juices of the
insect and thus proves poisonous to the insect whilst comparatively harmless to the plant. "
I would suggest that it would be of utility and interest if Government
should consider it advisable, that during any plague of locusts in any part
of the Indian empire, should these insects be observed at any time to
die in any numbers; that instructions should be issued to all parties
concerned, that in such an event a small tin-box of the dead locusts
should be collected and despatched to the Imperial Bacteriologist at Mukte-
sar, in order that he may examine and discover the cause of death and if
possible propagate by cultures the organism or mould which brings about
the death of the locust. By this means, a suitable and more reliable exter-
minater may be discovered and, if found, put to a practical test as to its
value.
(f) Mallein.—During the past twelve months 323 doses of English and
French Mallein have been imported and distributed to Inspector General,
Civil Veterinary Department, and the Superintendents of the various prov-
inces, Punjab, North-Western Provinces and Bengal. In addition 350 doses
of Mallein, prepared at the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory, were issued to
Officers of the Civil Veterinary Department between June and August 1899.
Veterinary Lieutenant G. K. Walker was ordered to Hapur Remount Depôt
in order to test the Mallein on equines supposed to be suffering from Glanders,
and in his report stated as follows : " I am therefore constrained to state
that in my opinion that although Muktesar Mallein will on occasions pro-
duce satisfactory results, that is not my own experience and I consider it
unreliable." At the same Depôt Mallein prepared at Royal Veterinary College
and the Pasteur Institute was also experimented with in numerous suspected
cases with equally unsatisfactory results, therefore the Muktesar Mallein was
not alone at fault.
Mallein is prepared from the cultures of virulent Glanders bacilli incubated
and later inspissated at a low temperature, or consists of the filtered products
of the above mentioned organism. The subcutaneous injection of small doses
of Mallein in Equines suffering from Glanders or its more chronic form Farcy,
presents certain symptoms, thermal and organic (local), which are of the
greatest possible use in making a diagnosis in a doubtful case of the disease.
Nocard states that several injections of Mallein into a Glandered animal may
bring about a spontaneous cure, but the Veterinary Officers at Hapur—"Lieu-
tenants Peacocke and Pallin"—reported to the Principal Veterinary Officer that
Mallein when inoculated into the diseased animals aggrevated the symptoms.
Later the disease was diagnosed as "Lymphangitis Epizootica" and
the pus from 37 horses and mules was found to contain the specific organism
of that disease. Therefore the reason is patent why the Mallein from all three
Institutes was found to be unreliable.