The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-08-01
By DR.. MORRIS FISHBEIN
Editor Journal of the American Medical
Association and of Hygeia, the
Health Magazine.

TINE United States was visited
4 about 1920 by a veritable cpl
demic of a condition which became
known as American sleeping sick
ness, in contrast to the type that
occurs in Africa, trypanosomiasis
and which is due to parasite
known as the trypanosome.
The exact cause of the epidemic
in the United States was not known
and has not yet been established.
Apparently, it affects men and
women alike. 1t begins gradually,
usually with tendency to abnor-
NAL drowsiness, with double vision
of defective vision, feeling of
light a loss Of emotional
control and various pains, similar
to neuritis. Sometimes the condi-
ton comes on with extreme sud-
denness, but usually it comes grad
ually.
The afflicted person lies on his
back with eyes half closed and face
flushed; he will lie motionless for
hours at a time, without any at
tempt to alter his position.
The patient may make no COM
ment and appear to be completely
without interest in his surround
ings. However, there are other
cases in which there is restlessness,
muttering and meaningless talking.
In. recent newspaper reports, it is
stated that patients have slept for
six months or seven months at a
time. In the vast majority of cases,
although these people appear to be
in a state of stupor, they awaken
when spoken to and may reply in
diligently to questions, although
their response is slow and the
speech sometimes exceedingly diff
cult. Usually, there is some fever.
The physician supplements his ex-
animation of the general condition
of the patient by examining the
spinal fluid and the blood and the
various excretions of the body, to
rule out other diseases.
Newspaper reports also recently
have emphasized the fact that a
serum is being used in some cases
which is believed to have specific
effects, principally because one pa
tent who slept for long time,
showed some signs of response fol-
lowing the use of the serum.
Obviously in condition which is
as irregular as this one, and in
which patients frequently waken for
short periods, only to relapse again,
such occurrences in few cases can
mean very little.
In most cases people who have
this disease or who have had it do
not recover fully. Sometimes the
patients die early after the onset of
the symptoms, perhaps within eight
cen or twenty days.
In a considerable number of in
stances, they recover from the acute
condition, but thereafter for long
periods Of time may show various
symptoms of change in the brain
and nervous system.
Because Of the special character
of the tissues of the brain and of
the nervous system, it is not safe to
make any definite prediction in any
instance Of complete recovery.
Each case must be studied by the
physician as an individual condi-
ton and treated accordingly.
In some 40 to 60 per cent of cases
there seems to develop a tremor of
the type that occurs in shaking
palsy or Parkinson's disease.
In other instances, movements
like those that occur in st. Vitus'
dance develop,
In some instances, children who
have had the disease seem to change
completely their habits of sleep, so
that at night they become restless,
toss about, tear their clothes, and