X 



15^ 



ou the lake and they had every chance of being bitten by G. 

 niorsiUuis when staying in this viHage. Though it was only in 

 1909 that public attention was called to the fact that sleeping 

 sickness had been observed in the Luangwa Valley, previous to 

 this (about 1906 or 1907) there had been some deaths following 

 each other in rapid succession in the family of a cotton-grower on 

 the banks of the river, who lost his mother, sister, brother and 

 a friend Avithin a very short time, though the author does not 

 know the precise cause of death. The cotton-grower employed 

 native labourers some of whom came from infected areas near 

 Tanganyika. The author suggests that before the destruction of 

 game in Nyasaland and North East Rhodesia, or indeed anywhere 

 where sleeping sickness exists, is decided upon, a careful investi- 

 gation should be made in other districts and the blood of all 

 antelopes examined. It is possible that the bulk of them would 

 be found to be free from either T. gamhiense or T. rhudesiense. 



Heiser (V. G.). The Outbreak of Plague in Manila during 1912 — 

 Fhilippme Jl. Science, viii, B, no. 2, April 1913, p. 109-118, 

 1 map. 



After an absence of six years in human beings, and five years 

 among rats, plague was again found in the Philippine Islands on 

 19tli June 1912. The outbreak in Manila and the sanitary 

 measures employed are discussed. Among the factors concerned 

 in the introduction of the disease, it is probable that infected rats 

 were introduced in cargo which comes almost daily from plague- 

 infected centres in Japan and China. The epidemic might also 

 have been .started by infected bed-bugs. In one case of human 

 plague from Manila, bed-bugs were caught from the petate (straw 

 mat) upon which the man died, and smears made from the 

 intestinal contents showed plague-like bacilli ; the pathological 

 findings, however, were not confirmatory. 



h\)X (C). The Plague Outbreak in Iloilo. — Philippine Jl. Science, 

 viii, B, no. 2, April 1913, pp. 119-122, 1 map. 



The outbreak of plague at Iloilo was a small circumscribed 

 epidemic, occurring in the absence of demonstrable rat infection. 

 The author is of opinion that it was an instance of bed-bug trans- 

 mission, starting with a case of human plague, introduced into 

 Iloilo from Manila, or possibly from a plague-infected foreign 

 port; the reason for this conclusion being* the absence of rat 

 infection, the decidedly circumscribed foci, and the sudden 

 cessation of the outbreak after the houses believed to be infected 

 had been thoroughly treated to kill bed-bugs. It is to be regretted 

 that an effort to secure bed-bugs was not made earlier in the 

 campaign, so that inoculation experinients could have been 

 carried on to prove or disprove the validity of the theory in this 

 case. However, that l)e(l-bugs may, and often do, carry plague 

 infection has been proved beyond a doubt by various observers. 



