The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-02-15
AN AFRICAN TERROR.
THE TSETSE FLY'S BITE is SURE
DEATH; TO ANIMALS.

DEATH TO ANIMALS.
scicnce Has Tried In Vain to Find n
Remedy For the Sting of the Veno-
nous Little Inscct-Its Poison Has
No Effect Upon Man.
A pest that fatally afflicts animals,
but not man, and has thus far been
confined to central and southern Africa,
is the subject of report to the Royal
society, in England, by committee ap-
pointed to investigate the matter The
disease in question is the result Of a
bite by fly scarcely larger than the
common house fly, and though it's prog
ress is somewhat slower than that of the
poison from snake bite the effect is
equally deadly to OK, horse or dog A
sting like that of mosquito leads to
symptoms resembling those of a cold,
and the animal grows steadily worse
until it dies perhaps week or ten days
after the tiny wound was inflicted.
The Importance of q malady of this
sort was SO apparent that the Royal So
ciety appointed committee to study
its nature and to ascertain, if possible
whether any cure could he found. A
GOOD deal of interesting information is
presented N the report but as jet, III
spite of some original and Thorough ex-
nerilnents. no remedy has been found
for the disease Tie most that science
can reconl lend 1T present Is y cortinu
.ence Of Inc protective lneassres Iesorted
TO by the natives Which consist OF pas
taring animals oyer before theT are TAX
en into an infec5e.ldis sirict with manure
and other filthy substance.
The tsetse fly sucks blood. as does .he
mosquito, and communicates is poison
unisltontionally no doubt Just rs mos
quitoes are supposed 10 convegt;nlalarial
poison into The veins of their victims
The mischief lnalsin. agent il both in
stances appears TO bea living organism.
a microbe, characteristic in the one case
of malarial fever and in the other OF the
strange and fatal tsctse disease The
existence Of the latter parasite was dis
covered by Surgeon Major Bruce several
years ago, after a careful study of the
sccnrge. The fly is so abundant and
pernciously active in some regions that
they cannot be inhabited by horses and
cattle. 1t is curious fact, though, that
man appears to be entirely unaffected
By its bite
The great advances made within the
last few years iii bacteriology naturally
suggested to the Royal society investi
gators d line Of experiment from which,
at the outset, it was reasonable to ex-
pect much The first step was TO obtain
specimens Of the microlc, the next vas
to loo!: into his habits and relation
ships. and she third was TO see wh;.s
conl.l be done in the way os producing
an aatitoxin from his poison.
The microbes wanted we're aai5en
from the blood Of dog that had been
injected with tie disease on Its way
home from Africa Cultures were then
made IL the ltls.;l manner. Various
animals were inoculatea with the para
sifes and attempts We're made to pro
d7ce q serum, such is IS oi,ia;nel ior
snake bite, diphtheria and tetanus. that
would protect animals chat had not
been attacked and cure those which
had. But the system which works SO
admirably with Il few OF the best known
bacterial maladies does not seem to be
enicacious with that which results
from the bite of the tsetsr fly Several
variations OF the stand" methods We're
tried withort success. L. il om diseased
animals was injected, for instance. So
were preparations containing the para
sites of kindred lnaladies. Dieting was
also resorted to, but yielded no pallia-
tive effects.
The inquiry of the committee was
carried on in such a comprehensive
manner as to include comparison with
the tsetse infection of somewhat similar
phenomena noticed among rats in India
and elsewhere. Koch is said to have at
tributed plague prevalent among In
dian rats to the tsetse parasite. The
Royal society committee does not con-
slider the point established, but the
identity of the African malady with
one observed in Algeria is more prob
able.
One part of the investigation conduct
ed by the committee related to the kinds
of animals that are subject to the pest
under discussion. To obtain informa-
tion on this point, cats, dogs, rabbits,
mice, rats, guinea pigs and even hedge
hogs were inoculated. They proved sus-
ceptiblc to the disease. At first it was
suspected that the gninea pig was I'M
mnnc, but while it responds more slow
ly than some other animals to the poison
itsuccumDs eventually. No recovery oc-
Cured after TIE parasites had once got
into the creature blood. Not only does
the horse die i'll consequence OF Il tsetse
fly bite, but hybrid of the zebra and
ass does too. No hope Of finding sub
stitute for the noblcr animal that would
be proof against the disease was afford
ed by this test Here however, are
two or three comforting facts although
they have little practical bearing on
the problem presented. 1t seems proved
that the disease cannot be communicate
ed by eating the flesh of an animal
which has died from it unless some
lesion exists in the mouth OF food pas
sagcs In other words, the poison must
be injected into The blood. The virus
rather quickly ceases to be infcctivc.
Blood drawn from u living diseased ami
NAL loses this in three OF four days at