INSECT DANGER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24634, 16 June 1941, Page 9

INSECT DANGER

ARMY POST FOR EXPERT RECOMMENDATION TO MINISpR (Air Mail) SYDNEY, June 8. Appointment of a qualified entomologist to the army to, , fight insect enemies which. might threaten .the health of Australians serving in.tropic and sub-tropic countries has:been recommended to the Minister for 'the Army, Mr Spender, by the Professor of zoology at Sydney University, Professor W, J. Dakin. An entomologist would deal with diseases caused by liqe, flies and mosquitoes, insects which are rife in the Middle East and Far East, where our soldiers are. Professor Dakin said. " We have never had an entomologist attached to the Australian Army, but we need one now. His services are essential to reduce the . incidence of ' insect casualties.' It < would be unwise to delegate entomology, to a medical man already with the army. This work requires the services of a fullytrained man who. to have the proper status, should be given commissioned rank."

The lecturer in entomology at the Sydney University (Mr A. R. Woodhill) said that an entomologist would be required to control the breeding and distribution of disease-bearing insects and prevent them from contacting army food and gaining access to quarters. Mosquitoes, which breed in all areas now occupied by Australian troops, were responsible for transmitting malaria and dangue. said Mr Woodhill.

Body-lice, still a major curse, carr ried typhus; which caused immense loss of life in the last war, particu-s larly in Serbia, Poland and Russia. Flies spread typhoid and dysentry, j while fleas, carrying bubonic plague, were also a menace that an entomologist might be called upon to control. During the last war, said Professor Woodhill, Professor Lancelot Harrison, who was subsequently at the Sydney University, was attached to the British Army in Mesopotamia as an entomologist. So far. no such appointment had been made to the Australian forces. At present, control of dangerous insects was' the duty of the Army Medical Corps officers, but the subject called for specialised knowledge..