PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND HYGIENE 



discoverer of the cause of tuberculosis, went to 

 Africa, and for half a year lived much of the 

 time upon a lonely island, inhabited by croco- 

 diles, and studied the disease. He experi- 

 mented with flies and crocodiles, and found 

 that the fly which carries the disease subsists 

 almost entirely upon the blood of these reptiles. 

 Methods for combating the disease are now 

 being applied with a hopeful outlook. 



There is no known instance of the disease 

 being transmitted from man to man without 

 the agency of the fly. The destruction of these 

 insects seems to be an insurmountable diffi- 

 culty, although measures for their elimination 

 are being studied. It is easily possible to 

 diminish their numbers in a given locality. But 

 what is still more important is the segregation 

 of the sick, screening them from the flies. This 

 is now being done, with the cooperation of the 

 natives and the tribal chiefs, so that the flies 

 cannot become infected with the parasites. 

 This at present represents the most hopeful 

 method of meeting the situation, just as it does 

 with yellow fever. Meanwhile search is being 

 made for some drug which will be inimical to 

 the parasites and not to the patient the same as 

 quinine is to the protozoa of malaria. For the 



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