The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-05-29
THE SLEEPING SICKNESS.

! Mombasa British East Africa Sat.
urday. April 3.-The sleeping sickness
| commission is hoping that Theodore
Roosevelt Will pay a visit TO the expe-
| Gltlon camp at Sesse. Agunda. where
| S-r David and Lady Bruce are in
charge of the segregation hospitals.
ne governments of Germany, France
ana belgium, as well as the govern
nent of the United Kingdom a1n
| loyalty working together endeayoring
10 md d cure or preventive for tho
sleeping sickness. Altogether seven
European doctors have succunbed TO
the fatal disease since the determined
attempts to cope with the evil were
commenced. Governor Sir Hesketh Bell
describes his latest visit to the camp
in part as follows:
The patients are lodged i'm large
matched bandas and were divided ac-
cording to sex and the various stages
of the disease. In one enclosure we
saw a number of infants i'm whom tho
first outward signs of the scourge were
just appearing. Unaware of their i'm
pending doom, the little black m ties
played and romped to their hearts
content i'm the shade of the banana
grove, and only the sweled glands at
the base of their necks showed that
their fate was scaled. 1t was sad
indeed, to think that in a very short
time these 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 year or
two of misery. be laid in their crowded
cemetery that l could just see between
the trees.
Victims Suffer AcuteIy.
'1n row Of sheds surrounded by
the banana groves which supply the
food for the patients, We saw num-
bers of those who had reached the
second stage of the sease. Most Of
them appeared to be suffering acute1y
They seemed to shun the cool shade of
the broad thatched roofs and pre-
ferred to sit or lie in the full blaze
of the MONDAY sun. Even there
many of them shivered almost CON
stantly. and drew about their emac-
lated limbs the brown rags of bark
cloth which partly covered them. The
drawn features and haggard eyes testi-
fed to the gnawing pains that almost
constantly afflict them, and the un-
happy creatures appeared to have spe-
cial dread of being touched Many of
these were in the peculiar state of
lethargy which has. doubtless. been
responsible for the misleading name by
which the disease has become COM
monty known"
Those in Final Stages.
Futher on we came to those who
were in the last stages of the disease
Lying about, on beds of withered
leaves, they had reached a degree OF
emaciation that was horrible to see
The unhappy creatures look like skel-
doll f,,I
indicated the presence of life in tho
wretched remains. A few. In whom
nature was struggling hard, had gone
raving mad, and i'll spite of the fact
that the poor creatures had perforce
to be chaned to heavy logs to prevent
their doing harm one almost envies
them their insensibility to the tor
lures that afflicted their fellow vic
Tins. The frenzied laughter OF these
unfortunates seemed particularly
dreadful in that abode of suffering and
death.
Tsetse Fly Transmits Disease.
ut is generally accepted that a va
riety of the tsetse fly, the CLOSING
Palpalis. is the principal. of not the
only agent for the transmission of the
disease. This fly exists in enormous
numbers on the shores of the Victoria
Nyamza, and also on the borders of
some other lakes and rivers of
Uganda. It's habitation. however. is re-
stricted to a narrow belt of forest |
growth adjoining the water. and a.
width of two miles is believed to be tho |
limit of the infected zones. Out of |
some 100000 souls inhabiting the !
shores of Victoria Nyanza and the
islands in the great lake. over 200 600 |
have already been swept out of ex-
istence. and it remains to be seenA
whether the remainder can still be |
saved
THE determination of the tsetse an !
pears to be a hopeless task, and il mas |
therefore been decided to remove an |
the surviving population out of thr
reach of the fatal IN"