Specific Organism 555 



decided symptoms, resembles the general paralysis of the 

 insane. It differs from this, however, in the absence, as a 

 rule, of the peculiar psychic phenomenon of that disease. 

 There are exceptions, but generally, though the mental fac- 

 ulties in sleeping sickness are dull and slow acting, the 

 patient has no mania, no delusions, no optimism. So far 

 is the last from being the case, that he is painfully aware 

 of his condition and of the miserable fate that is in store for 

 him; and he looks as if he knew it." 



Specific Organism. The discovery of the specific organ- 

 isms was foreshadowed by Nepveu,* who recorded the exist- 

 ence of trypanosomes in the blood of several patients coming 

 from Algeria, by Barron, f and by Brault.f In 1901 Forde 

 received under his care at the hospital in Bathurst (Gambia), 



i 



>K 



t 



<*: 



Fig. 190. Trypanosoma gambiense (Todd). 



a European, the captain of a steamer on the River Gambia, who 

 had navigated the river for six years, and who had suffered sev- 

 eral attacks of fever that were looked upon as malarial. The 

 examination of his blood revealed the presence not of malarial 

 parasites, but of small worm-like bodies, concerning the nature 

 of which Forde was undecided. Later, Button, in conjunc- 

 tion with Forde, examined this patient, whose condition had 

 become more serious, and recognized that these worm-like 

 bodies seen by Forde were trypanosomes. Of these parasites 



* "Memoirs, Soc. de Biol. de Paris," 1891, p. 49. 

 t "Transactions of the Liverpool Medical Institute," Dec. 6, 1894. 

 t "Janus," July to August, 1898, p. 41. 



"Trypanosomes and Trypanosomiasis," Laveran and Mesnil, 

 1907. 



