120 



Knowledge of the disease, its cause, and its remedies are still in the 

 making, and hasty and imperfectly considered action of a drastic 

 character, such as the attempt to effect a general destruction of wild 

 animals, is not justified by the evidence before the Committee. On 

 the other hand, the Committee recommend that mitil direct means of 

 checking the fly have been discovered, the food supply of the fly and 

 the chances of infection should be lessened in the vicinity of centres 

 of population and trade routes by the removal of wild animals, and that 

 for this pui"pose freedom be granted both to settlers and natives to 

 hunt and destroy the animals within prescribed areas and subject to 

 prescribed conditions. 



So far as regards the disease in Uganda, the measures already taken 

 have effectually checked the epidemic and removed the mass of the 

 population from the danger of further infection. While, no doubt, 

 it is desirable that the land lying near Victoria Xyanza should be 

 rendered again available for the use of that population, this is not a 

 question of immediate urgency and may well await the acquisition 

 of further knowledge. 



"With regard to the Xyasaland and Rhodesian form of the disease, 

 its incidence on the population is slight and it is not increasing. The 

 evidence pomts to its being an old disease — endemic and not extensive, 

 and though it is unsafe to prophesy, there is no apparent reason to 

 anticipate its appearance in an epidemic form. Raving regard to 

 the importance of the question whether man forms a reservoir of the 

 human tr^^anosome, the Committee lay emphasis on the desirability 

 of further experiments as suggested in paragraphs 41 and 42. These 

 read as follows : — 



41 {b) Man. The rapid course of the disease, and the fact that 

 infected persons usually have to lie up at once in their houses, tend to 

 show that such persons are not of great importance as reservoirs. 

 The invariable fatality of T. rhodesiense infection in man, however, 

 is not without exception. Dr. Yorke records the case of one of his 

 personal servants who remamed well for a year after tr^^anosomes 

 were found in his blood (App. B. § 608). And Dr. Stohr mentioned 

 the case of a native who remained well for at least three months after 

 trypanosomes were found in his blood (App. B. §§ 5663 and 5755). 

 Further investigation may lead to the discovery of other similar cases. 

 Such cases may form reser'\'oirs of the disease. 



42. It is desirable that a large number (not less than 500) of appar- 

 entlv healthy natives living in proclaimed morsitans areas in Xyasaland 

 should be carefully examined for tr\-panosomes, both by the direct 

 method and by inoculation of their blood into susceptible animals. 



Itmustberecognised that the e^-idence all points to the conclusion that 

 if tsetse-fly could be ehminated from contact with human settlement, 

 sleeping sickness would practically disappear, infection conveyed by 

 other biting flies being a negligible factor in the spread of the disease. 



For this reason the Committee attach great importance to a proper 

 and sufficient equipment of entomological research into the bionomics 

 of the incriminated tsetse-flies. This form of research has, in their 

 view, been insufficiently pursued up to the present time. The workers 

 have been zealous, but few in numbers, and the work consequently 

 limited to onlv a very small portion of the fly belts and areas from which 

 the danger arises. 



