The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-05
The So-called Sleeping 8 ickness
Has Been Misnamed.
Victims Rarely Experience Any
thing Like Sound Repose.
In CONSTANT PAIN.
Some Commit Suicide and
Others Become Insane.
In Last Stages They Are
Chained to Heavy Logs.


Mombasa, British East Africa. May s.
The sleeping sikness COMMITTEES Is
hoping that Theodore Roosevelt Will
pay a visit to the expeditions camp
Sesse, Uganda, where Sir David and
Lady Bruce are in charge of segrega-
tion hospitals. The governments of
Germany, France. Belgium, as well as
the government of the United King
dom, are loyalty working together en-
deavoring to find a cure or prevents
i've for the sleeping sickness. Alto
gether seven European doctors have
succumbed to the fatal disease since
the attempts to cope with the evil were
commenced.
Governor Sir Hesketh Bell, in appeal
ing to the millionaires of the world and
others benevolently disposed for money
gifts to enable him to purchase and
slaughter stock to crafty the one and
only craving of those whose suffering is
so intense. which Is summed up in the
word meat describes his latest visit
to the camp in part as follows:
The patients we're lodged in large
thatched bandas mad were divided ac-
cording to the various stages of dis
sease. In one enclosure we saw a
number Of infants, in whom the first
outward signs of the scourge were just
appearing. unaware OF their lmpenu-
ing doom, the little black mites played
and romped to their hearts content In
the shade of the banana grove. and
only the swelled glands at the base OF
their necks showed that their fate was
sealed. 1t was sad indeed to think
that in a short time, those merry peals
of laughter would gradually become
more and more rare, and that all those
poor little creatures in whom the joy
of life was so strong. would, after a
- T. lot IT,. h.
crowded cemetery that could just see
between the trees.
Second Stage of Disease.
'In row of sheds surrounded by
the banana groves which supply the
food for the patients, we saw numbers
of those who had reached the second
stage of the disease. Most of them ap-
peared to be suffering acutely. They
seemed to .shun the cool shade of the
broad thatched roofs and preferred to
sit or lie in the full blaze of the noon
day sun. Even there. many of them
shivered almost constantly and drew
about their emaciated limbs the brown
rugs of bark cloth which partly covered
them.
"The drawn features and haggard
eyes testified to the gnawing pains that
almost constantly afflicted them and
the unhappy creatures appeared to
have special dread of being touched
Many OF them were ip the peculiar
state of lathargy, which has, doubtless,
been responsible for the misleading
name by which the disease has become
commonly known. Unfortunately
sound sleep rarely comes to the relief
of the doomed ones, and the torture in
which they lie and the constant strain
of never ceasing pain. Many of them.
in an unguarded moment, put an end
to their miserable lives. and 1t is
wonder that more of them do not DO
likewise.
Further in, we c-.me to those who
were in the last stages of the disease.
Lying about on beds or withered leaves.
they had reached a degree of ernacia-
ton that was horrible to see. The un-
happy creatures looked like skeletons
and only their doleful moaning indica-
ted the presence of life in the wretch
ed remains. A few in whom nature was
struggling hard, had gone raving mad.
and in spite of the fact that the poor
creatures had perforce to be chained
harm. one almost envied them their
linsensibility. The frenzied laughter OF
these unfortunates seemed particularly
dreadful in that abode of suffering and
death.
! ''It is generally accepted that a va
riety of the tsetse fly, the glossina fall
pals, is the principal. II not the only
agent for the transmission of the dis
ease. This fly exists in enormous num-
|
anza. and also on the borders of some
other lakes and rivers of Uganda Its
habitation. however, is restricted 10 a
narrow growth adjoining water, and
width of two miles is believed to be the
limit of the infested zones. Out of some
200 900 souls inhabiting the shores of VIC
Itoria Nyanza and the Islands In the
great lake. over 100000 have already
been swept out of existence, and it
remains to be seen whether the remain
dor ran still be saved.
| "The determination of the tsetse ap-
tpears to be a hopeless task, and 1t has
therefore been decided to remove all the
surviving population out OF the reach or
/ the fatal fly.
| IT Is estimated that more than 10000
sick now remain to be dealt with, and
they are being located in large camps
lea apable of accommodating about 1000 at
a time.
cattle. sheep and goats are cheap
lin Uganda and comparatively moder-
ate sum would enable us to provide now
and then meals OF meat for the unhap-
nv inmates of the sleeping sickness
/ camps. Unless a cure be soon discov-
cred they will not long remain charge
to ms and IL my readers could have
seen the intense delight that trans
IArured the faces of the inmates OF the
lrefugee at Kissubi. at the. prospect OF
I,,eat. they would think a. few shillings
well spent in that direction"
Gas at 20 Cents.
Cedar Rapids, Ia, May 5.-This city
/ x,fr4 in, a