The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-06
TRAVELS OF AN INSECT.
South American Bugs Slow But
Steady Progress Round the World.
From the sun.


The jgger, one of the insect pests
of the West Indies and South America,
has at last crossed equatorial Africa
from the Atlantic to Zanzibar, about
200 miles, twenty-six years after its
introduction into the Continent This
variety of the flea, much smaller than
the common flea, is very troublesome,
and If it's attacks upon few animals,
including man, are not prevented, Il is
sometimes fatal to life. The fact that
its gradual advance among the natives
of Africa threw them into consterna-
tion. often causing the abandonment
of villages and districts, has made IL
easy to trace it's progress step by step,
and a brief summary of it's journey
across Africa will be interesting as c
striking Illustration to insect naviga-
ton.
A sailing vessel arrived at Amor'z,
Angola, in September. 1872, from Bra
zil with sand ballast, which she Dump
ed on the beach. The jigger had
crossed the ocean in this sand, and
its propensity for boring through the
skin and lodging between the cutiCle
and the flesh soon made its presence
known. There are effective means of
preventing it's attacks, but before the
natives learned how to deal with il
the little pest caused great suffering.
1t was long ago evident that the jiggCr
was not using its own powers of loco
motion to any large extent in its jour
ney through Africa, but that it was
carried by caravans in the porterage
service
In 1885 travellers crossing the contln-
ent from Zanzibar heard nothing of
the jigger till they arrived within 300
miles of the Atlantic. 1t had taken
the insect thirteen years to penetrate
this distance into Africa. The natives
at Stanley Pool had witnessed with
sorrow the advent of the unwelcome
visitor that abided with them, but sent
on colonies further up the river.
Thenceforth the jigger's progress was
more rapid, for steamboats, and cara
vans were multiplying on the upper
Congo. Seven years later. in 1892. Dr.
Oscar Baumann reported the arrival
of the pest at Bukumbi Gulf, midway
on the south coast of Victoria Nyanza.
1t was still unknown on the east shores
of the lake. The natives declared that
it had been brought to the west coast
by Stanley's expedition for the relief
Of Emin Pasha. However that may
be, the jigger appeared about the same
time throughout most of the central
lake regian, following the caravan
route from the upper Congo through
Manyeina to Lake Tanganyika. The
natives along the edge of Victoria
Nyanza suffered terribly from the in
Fiction and many villages were aban-
doned
Three years more elapsed before the
missionaries at Mpwapwa reported the
arrival Of the jigger among the noun
tians at that point, 200 miles from the
Indian Ocean. 1t took the insect two
years more to reach the coast towns
of East Africa, where it appeared al
most simultaneously. late in 1897, at all
the towns between Bagamoya and
Pangani, along seventy miles of the
coast, and another year elapsed be-
fore, late last fall, it was jumping
along the sands of Zanzibar Island.
The people of the east coast have
suffered comparatively little in COM
parison with the inland tribes, for
hundreds of zanzibars who had worked
for years on the Congo have returned
home and spread the information that
rubbing with tobacco leaves and, above
ALL cleanliness and the wearing of
shoes, are effective protection against
the jigger.
After its long journey from Brazil
the jigger is now established at the
busy mart whence many vessels sal
from the East Indies and Oceanic2.
There seems no good reason why this
persevering and successful traveller
should not girdle the tropical world.