286 BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



brucei and are also conveyed by the bite of a tsetse fly, Glossina 

 palpalis, belonging to the same genus as the fly responsible for the 

 transmission of nagana. 



The symptoms of the disease are divided into two stages. 

 In the first they are of a mild character, the pulse and respirations 

 are quickened ; there is an irregular elevation of temperature and 

 enlargement of the lymph nodes. The trypanosomes are found in 

 small numbers both in the enlarged glands and in the blood. After 

 several months and in some cases years the second stage of the 

 disease commences. The fever becomes hectic, the patient is listless 

 and apathetic, neuralgic pains, trembling of the muscles, and grad- 

 ually increasing emaciation and lethargy develop, until finally a 

 comatose condition occurs and death ensues. The duration of 

 the second stage is from four to eight months, during which period 

 the parasites may always be found in the spinal fluid. So far as 

 is known the disease is invariably fatal, and so prevalent is it in 

 certain parts of South Africa that in some villages from 30 to 50 

 per cent of the inhabitants have been found to be infected. 



Treatment with atoxyl and arsenic compound is said to have 

 been of benefit in animal trypanosomiasis. In human cases, how- 

 ever, the results have been more uncertain. 



T. Rhodesiense. Another trypanosome, T. rhodesiense, iso- 

 lated in 1911 from cases of sleeping sickness in Rhodesia, differs 

 morphologically from T. gambiense and is also more virulent. It 

 is conveyed by the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans) and is a harm- 

 less parasite of certain wild South African animals. 



Still another form of human trypanosomiasis transmitted by a 

 bug occurs in Brazil, where it is known as " Chagas disease." 



LEISHMANIA-DONOVANI 



Leishman discovered in 1900 in the blood of a number of soldiers 

 suffering from a febrile disease, who had been invalided home from 

 Dum-Dum, an unhealthy section of India, peculiar bodies which 

 he thought resembled degenerating forms of T. brucei. In 1903 

 he published his observations and suggested that the cachexial 



