The New York herald., 1922-01-08
\ DOR humanity is always vitality inter-
ested In new diseases. and so long as
they affiict others than themselves

ested in new diseases. and so long as
they affiict others than themselves
individuals are equal to the task of studying
them in smattering way without fears Or
qualms. At the moment the two unfamiliar
maladies that fascinate the public are pei
lagra and sleeping sickness. The lay mind
holds So few facts about either that it is
asking if there is any connection between
them.
There isn't
Pelagra is disagreeable and often an
ncurable skin disease that results from in
sufficient nourishment or from eating de-
cayed cereals. At least that Is what some
physicians say. Other doctors, and these
have had experience with the disease in the
South, declare that pellagra is in no way
connected with insufficient food supplies. It's
origin, they add, is from the bite of a fly
which communicates it just as the bite Of a
mosquito under favorable conditions Ito the
mosquito) communicates yellow fever.
Perhaps the consideration that there might
be some distant connection between pellagra
and sleeping sickness arose in the lay mind
OF which the doctors are contemptuous, be-
cause sleeping sickness also is carried by q
fly and caused by an organism Of type but
recently recognized by science.
With without relationship of even a
distant kind, the views of our people about
either disease are without alarm. One dis
case seems to be confined to a narrow belt
in the south of this country and the other
to be feared only by those unfo-tunates who
have to live In West Africa. People in the
northern States and in temperate latitudes
generally don't worry about the sleeping
sickness.
While they do not worry about it, they
are tremendously interested ia it; few dis
eases have made immediate an appeal to
the imagination this one. The passage
of its victim through lethargy to drowsness
ever increasing, and finally to death which
no effort, in the majority of Instances, has
served to avert holds quality of dread at
once strange and fascinating
But, says the man in the street. or he
used to say before 1918, IL need not add the
sleeping sickness to my list of dreaded things
since the disease is confined to West Africa"
Incidental to Any Epidemic
And Has Followed Influenza
There he is wrong. The sleeping sickness
is not confined to West Africa to the
African continent. 1t is, say the authorities
. who have had what they consider the privi-
lege to study it, corollary to any epidemic
A sufficient number of cases of the sleep
ing sickness were observed in New York
city in and after the great epidemic of In
fluenza of 1919 to remove the feeling of i'm
munity that once prevailed. These cases
are numerous enough to have furnished ma
terial for books on the subject by DR.. Fred
crick Tilney and DIR. Hubert S. Howe. The
title of the work embodying the facts
cleaned from the study of these cases Is
Epidemic Encephaltis
py rfnaa fc thair nd
nor do they so state it to be. On the con-
trary, DR.. Tilney refers to the sickness as
one misunderstood and much debated while
his colleagues admit that the cases under
observation leave much that is obscure.
There Is no doubt in their minds, however.
that true types OF the sleeping sickness have
been present in this city, and there is ground
for their Interpretation of it's presence here
in the influenza epidemic A similar epidemic
prevailed in Vienna in 1917 and II was also
accompanied by score more-cases of
sleeping sickness.
Epidemic encephdlitis, says DIR. Tiney
in his book, "is an unusual disease (epides)
which profoundly affects the nervous sys-
tenn. A conspicuous feature of 1t Is a pro-
ionged somnolence. called by the layman,
not unjustiiabiy, the sleeping sickness"
There are several types Of the disease so
far noted and these are lethargic. cataieptic,
paralytic epileptic, maniacal and acute
psychotic. In all of the types appear the
following general symptoms: prolonged
sleep. or lethargy, palsies OF the cranial
nerves a marked asthenia The usual prog
ress OF these Is from stupor to somnoence
then TO delirium. then to fever, often ended
by death. The diagnosis of all forms OF the
so-called sleeping sickness is that 1t is a
disease having special affinity for the GEN.
tral nervous system.
Six Cases Out of Twelve
Saved in This City
Observations OF twelve cases taken In the
epidemic showed that about half Of them
were saved. The sleep lasted vartabiy three
weeks, three mouths and even longer. One
of the most unusual cases studied was that
OF physician aged 43 who wore himself
out taking care of influenza patients. He
was affected In November 1918, and would
fall asleep while talking to patients. On
March 81. 1919, he was discharged from the
hospital cured.
The case Of q married woman 36 years
Old, Mrs. dc la c." was for time treated