The Holbrook news., 1909-05-14
10000 PATIENTS
 NEED MEAT DIET
SLEEPING SICKNESS CAMP IS CROWDED
 WITH STARVING NATIVES
African Disease That Claims 206, 900 Victims Is Transmitted By The Tsetse Ey-Funds
 Needed for Purchase of Fresh Meat

MOMBASA, East Africa, May 1O.- The sleeping sickness commission is hoping that Theodore Roosevelt will pay visit to the expeditions camp at SeSse, Uganda, where Sir David and Lady Bruce are in charge of the segregation hospitals. The govern ments of Germany, France, Belgium. as we'll as the government of the United Kingdom, are Loyalty working together endeavoring to find a cure or preventive for the sleeping sick ness.
 Altogether seven European doctors have succumbed to the fatal disease since the attempts to cope with the evil were commenced. Governor Sir Hesketh Bell, in appealing to the mil honaireS of the world and others be- nevolently disposed for money gifts to enable him to purchase slaughter of stock to gratify 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 were lodged in large matched bandas and were divided ac- cording to sex and the various stages of the disease. In one inclosure we saw a number of infants, in whom the first outward signs of the scourge were just appearing. Unawares of their i'm pending 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. It was sad, in- deed, 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 ~as so strong would after a year or two of misery be laid in the crowded cemetery that l could just see between the trees.
 Sick Prefer Hor Sun
 ''In row of sheds surrounded by the banana groves which supplied food for the patients, we saw numbers of those who had reached the second stage of the disease. Most of them appeared to be suffering intensely. They seemed to shun the cool shade of the broad matched roofs and pre- ferred to sit or lie in the full blaze of the monday sun. Even there many of them shivered almost constantly, and drew about their emaciated limbs the brown rags of bark cloth which partly covered them. Their drawn features and haggard eyes testified to the gnawing pains that almost con stantly afflicted them. and the un- happy creatures appeared to have spe- cial dread of being touched. Many of them were in the peculiar state of lethargy which has, doubtless. been responsible for the misleading name by which the disease has become com monly known. Unfortunately. sound sleep rarely comes to the relief of the doomed ones, and the torpor in which they lie comes from the constant strain of never-ceasing pain.
 Many of them, in an unguarded moment, put an end to their miserable lives, and it is a wonder that more of them do not do likewise. N4
 Farther in we came to those who were in the last stages of the disease. They were lying about on beds of withered leaves and reached a degree of maciation that was horrible to see. The unhappy creatures looked like skeletons. and only their doleful meanings indicated the presence of life in the wretched 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 to the heavy logs to prevent their doing harm, one almost envied them their insensibiiity to the tortures that afflicted their fel- low victims. The frenzied laughter of these unfortunatess seemed particular ly dreadful in that abode of suffering and death.
 Over 100000 Are Dead
 ''It is generally accepted that a variety of the tsetse fly, the Gossina Falpalis, is the principal, if not the only agent for the transmission of the disease. This fly exists in enormous numbers on the shores of Lake Vic toria Nyanza and also on the borders of other lakes and rivers of Uganda Its habitation, however, is restricted to a narrow growth, adjoining water, and a width of two miles is believed to be the limit of the infested zones. Out of some S00,000 souls ilhabiting the shores of Victoria Nyanza and the islands in the great lake. over 100000 have already been swept out of exist ence, and 1t remains to be seen whether the remainder can still be saved.