The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-06
THE SLEEPING SICKNESS.
Thousands of Africans Dying from
a Disense Caused by Fly Bites.

From the London Times.
Lieut.. Col. David Bruce, r. A. NJ.
c., +. Il. s., returned to England from
Uganda on Sept. 2S and has brought
with him report containing some very
important observations on the etiology
of sleeping sickness. Some conception
of the raVages wrought by this dis
ease among the native population in
Uganda may be formed from the con-
dition of the Buvuma Island, where a
population of $4,000 has been reduced to
5000 since the outbreak of the disease,
while the province of Busoga has been,
in the southern parts, almost depopu-
lated.
Col. Bruce was dispatched by his
majestys government, acting on the
advice of the Royal Society, to super
intend a further investigation into this
disease, upon which some work had al
ready been done by the previous COM
mission sent out by the society. He
was accompanied by DR.. NaIbarro as
bacteriologist, and, while in Uganda,
was joined by Capt. Greg, l. NJ. s.,
who had been sent out by the Indian
government for the purpose of study
ing the disease.
Col. Bruce and his party reached En-
tebbe on March 16, and, on arrival,
found that DIR. Castellani, a member
of the previous commission, who had
remained ut work upon the investiga-
ton, had observed in five cases of sleep
ing sickness trypanosomes in the cere-
bro-spinal fluid, and in one case, in
the blood. At that time Dr. Castellani
did not consider that this parasite had
any casual relationship to the disease,
but thought it was an accidental con-
| comitant. Nevertheless, the obserVa-
ton was of the greatest Importance to
the further Investigations, and, as soon
as it was reported to Col Bruce, whose
well known Investigations into the
| tsetse fly disease in South Africa had
| given him a special familiarity with
| this genus of parasite, the whole party
! with the most valuable and willing as
! sistance of DR.. Moffat, the principal
medical officer address themselves with
ardor to the pursuit of this line of in
| VeStigation with the result that, by
! the first week in April, the date of Dr.
! Castellani's departure from Uganda fol
England, out of thirty-four cases OF
the sickness examined, 10 per cent. were
found to have this parasite in the
cerebro-spinal fluid, whereas cases oil
/ patients under treatment for other dis
eases in the native hospital, when ex-
amined in the same way, showed nc
trypanosomes in their cerebro-s pina
fluid.
The further progress of the inVeSuga'
ton increased this proportion to lOC
| per cent. of the cases examined, in al
of which the parasite was now founC
| not only in the cerebro-spinal fluid, but
also in the circulating blood, pointing
to the very strong probability (as tele-
graphed to the Royal Society by Col
| Bruce at the beginning of ApriD thai
| this trypanosoma was the cause of the
disease. A series of carefully CONTROL
ed and infinitely observed experiments
was carried out by Bruce, Nabarro anC
| Grieg, in the course of which 1t was
discovered that monkeys inoculateC
with cerebro-spinal fluid from sleeping
sickness patients, or with blood from
natives not as yet showing symptom:
of sleeping sickness, but containing
similar parasite, sickened and dice
with all the symptoms of sleeping sick
ness.
From the analogy of the closely re
! lated diseases in cattle, the nagana o
tsetse fly disease of South Africa, i
was suspected that in sleeping sickness
| a like method of infection took place
Along the lake shore numbers of {
tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis) were fount
and it was demonstrated by experiment
| that not only were these flies fed OIL
sleeping sickness cases, capable of con
veying the disease to healthy monkeys
| but that the freshly caught flies from
| an infected area, without any artlncla
feeding, We're capable also of conveying
the disease.
1t was further discovered by a care
fully organized investigation in which
| the native Regents of the Protectorat'
| rendered valuable assistance, that this
| fly, like it's congener the tsetse fly O.
| South Africa, is confined to we'll de
fined areas, and that these areas CORE
spond absolutely, whereas, in regions
where no Glossina palpalis is found al
though other biting flies abound, there
| is no sleeping sickness. Moreover, al
| examination of a large number of in
dividuals in the sleeping sickness area:
and the housekeeping sickness areas re
spectively revealed the fact that, while
a large percentage Of the inhabitanti
of the sleeping sickness areas have II
their blood the trypanosoma already
referred to, in not single case taker
| from inhabitants of housekeeping sick
| ness areas was the parasite found.
These Investigations, therefore, point
to the conclusion that sleeping sickness
is caused by the entrance into the
blood, and thence into the cerebro-
spinal fluid, of a species of trypanoso'
ma (probably the Trypanosoma' Gam
biense discovered by Forde and de-
scribed by Dutton) which is transmitted
from the sick to the healthy by 9
species of tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis,
and by it alone; that, in short sleeping