[géant] sleeping sickness 17 



a state of complete insensibilit3^ In chronic cases, the symptoms are 

 slower in development, but usually eventuate in a like fatal issue. 



Sometimes preliminary symptoms of an exceedingly slight char- 

 acter, might be in progress for years, and in fact so feebly defined as to 

 be almost sublatent until very gradually the symptoms deepened in in- 

 tensity, when the gait, speech and food supply, entirely changed from 

 the normal condition, gradually followed by profound coma and death. 

 It is now generally accepted, that this disease is caused by the 

 entrance into the blood of a minute protozoal parasite; the 

 " Trypanosoma Gamhiense/' first described by Dr. Button, who while 

 searching out this disease, lost his life on the West Coast of Africa. In 

 South Africa there is a disease known among cattle and other domestic 

 animals, caused by the •' Trypanosoma Brucei," and conveyed by and 

 communicated from sick to healthy animals, by a " biting fly," the 

 Glossina Moritans. The idea followed that " Sleeping Sickness " might 

 be produced in a like manner from a "Biting Fly." " Large collections 

 of these biting flies were made with the remarkable result that the dis- 

 tribution of 'Sleeping Sickness ' and of a biting fly, the Glossina pal- 

 palis, corresponded exactly with each other." Col. David Bruce, 

 K.A.M.C, F.E.S., addressed the meeting of the British Association, on 

 this subject during the recent meeting in South Africa, and brought to 

 light many interesting facts, in this line of research which cannot fail 

 to be of great service. 



Sleeping Sickness is not contagious, and, in fact, is only considered 

 infectious, in a limited sense. The disease is generally believed to be 

 fatal, but in a few cases recoveries are vouched for. 



Dr. Todd, of McGill University, recently returned from West 

 Africa, having extended his observations over 2,000 miles of " The Free 

 State," from the mouth of the Congo. He favours the idea that nearly 

 all general glandular enlargements, without evident cause, such as 

 syphilis or tuberculosis, are cases of trypanosomiasis. The palpation 

 of these enlarged glands in the posterior triangle of the neck, is consi- 

 dered sutiicient evidence of the disease. The juice of enlarged glands 

 removed by the hypodermic needle, is unfailing as to the production of 

 trypanosomes, even when not found in the blood. Dr. Todd considers 

 the sleepiness rather as a terminal sign, and not necessarily an unfailing 

 symptom of the disease. 



Information has just been received (British Medical Journal, May 

 5th, 1906) that one of the commissioners sent out to Uganda in 1904, 

 by the Eoyal Society of England, to investigate Sleeping Sickness, 



Sec. IV., 1906. 2. 



