Science: 666

From the British Ministry of Agriculture last week came news of an insecticide which may be as good as famed DDT, and perhaps better. Known in wartime code as “666,” it is a simple chemical: hexa-chloro-benzene. In tests on parasitic mites and ticks (Acorida) it proved much more effective than DDT. On mangy rats infested with itch mites it worked a complete cure and, unlike DDT, proved entirely harmless to the animals. It may be the answer to scabies in animals and man, and to many tick-borne diseases.