May 



1910] 



NATURE 



279 



that future friends of aviation will discover means for 

 advancing its development that will not tempt men 

 to repeat such dangerous adventures as were inevit- 

 ably associated with the London to Manchester flight, 

 and that M. Paulhan's success will not stimulate a 

 number of less experienced followers to attempt to 

 emulate his achievement. G. H. Bryan. 



THE FIGHT AGAINST SLEEPING SICKNESS.' 



THE report of the German Sleeping Sickness 

 Commission is an attractive work in which 



n those who are not specially concerned with the 



iblems of sleeping sickness may find much to 

 interest them. In addition to a great mass of detail 

 bearing on the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and 

 prevention of a disease which is at present the most 

 important economic problem of European adminis- 

 trations in Africa, the work contains many facts and 

 observations of interest to the naturalist and the 

 anthropologist, and is illustrated by numerous ex- 

 quisite photographs. -\ certain number of the illus- 

 trations have, as might be expected in a work of 

 this kind, a melancholy interest, representing the 

 ravages of the disease as shown by sufferers from 

 it, or even more significantly by deserted homesteads ; 

 but others give a vivid idea of the scenery of the 

 shores of the Victoria Nyanza and of the dwellings, 

 habits, and appearance of the natives of that region. 



After a brief introduction and an account of the 

 general course of the expedition, by Dr. Koch, there 

 follow sections on the etiolog}' of sleeping sickness, 

 by Dr. Koch ; on diagnosis and on clinical observa- 

 tions, by Prof. Beck ; on the treatment of the 

 disease, by Prof. Beck and Prof. Kleine ; and on 

 preventive measures, by all three authors. In an 

 appendix are to be found meteorological observations 

 made during the expedition, and a history of 180 

 cases of sleeping sickness that came under observa- 

 tion and treatment, with their temperature charts. 



The section on etiology is divided into two parts, 

 dealing respectively with Trypanosoma gambietise 

 and Glossifia palpalis. Trypanosomes were found 

 not infrequently in the blood of persons whose glands 

 did not show the characteristic swellings and who 

 presented no symptoms of disease. The number of 

 trjpanosomes in the blood of infected persons was 

 always small, and appeared to be subject to periodic 

 variations. In the lymphatic glands trypanosomes 

 were more numerous than in the blood. It is stated 

 tliat the trypanosomes in the blood were always 

 uniform in appearance, and showed no differentiation 

 of form ; but all preparations seem to have been made 

 by methods which, though suitable for clinical 

 diagnosis, were quite inadequate for accurate study 

 of structural details. 



Many animals were examined with the object of 

 discovering a vertebrate host other than man for 

 Trypanosoma gambiense. Of mammals, only in a 

 single monkey were trypanosomes found, similar in 

 type to T. gamhiense; those found in birds, on the 

 other hand, w^ere of a distinct type. In reptiles, try- 

 panosomes were found in tortoises and crocodiles. 

 The trypanosome of the crocodile is described as large, 

 and similar in appearance to the European T. rota- 



i (i) Bericht uber die Tatigkeit der zur Erforschung der Schlafkrankheit 

 im Jahre 1906-7 nach Ostafrika entsandten Kommission. Erstattet von 

 Di. R. Koch, Prof. Dr. M. Beck, and Prof. Dr. F. Kleine. Pp. \-i 4- 320; 

 5 plates. (Berlin : Julius Springer, fgog.) Price 16.40 marks. 



(2) Bibliography of Trypanosomiasis. Compiled by C. A. Thimm. 

 Pp. iv+228. (London : Sleeping Sickness Bureau, Royal Society, 1909.) 

 Price 4i. ; to be obtained from the Bureau. 



(3) Sleeping Sickness Bureau, Bulletin No. 13. VoL ii., January-. 

 ^London : Royal Society, igio.) 



(4) Report on the Measures adopted for the Suppression of Sleeping 

 Sickness in Uganda. By Sir Hesketh Bell, K.C.M.G. Colonial Repoits. — 

 Miscellaneous, No. 65, December, 1909. Pp. 27, i map. 



NO. 2 1 14, VOL". 83] 



torium of frogs. In view of the erroneous statements 

 that have been so often made, attributing to Dr. 

 Koch the discovery- of a connection between sleeping 

 sickness and crocodiles (see Nature, February i8, 

 1909, p. 458), attention should be directed to his clear 

 statement that " in any case there is no connection 

 between this crocodile-trypanosome and Trypanosoma 

 gambiense." 



With regard to the transmission of T. gambiense. 

 Dr. Koch believes it to be effected by Glossina palpalis 

 alone. Nearly three thousand tsetse-flies of this 

 species were examined, and 189 of them were found 

 to contain trypanosomes; of which four types are 

 distinguished and described with the aid of coloured 

 figures drawn from stained preparations. Three of 

 these types of " wild " tr\'panosomes are considered 

 to be distinct from T. gambiense, with which species, 

 however, "Type IV." is identified; it was found five 

 times in tsetses caught on the Sese Islands. 

 "Type I.," the commonest of the four types in 

 occurrence, is identified with the trypanosome of the 

 crocodile. .Attempts were made to infect tsetse-flies 

 with T. gambiense by feeding them on infected 

 animals, but in all cases the trypanosomes died out 

 in a few days in the alimentary- tract of the Glossina. 

 The infection of the tsetse-fly can only be brought 

 about, it is suggested, under certain definite but as 

 yet unknown conditions. The more recent work of 

 Prof. Kleine and Sir David Bruce will doubtless, 

 when completed, make clear the nature of these con- 

 ditions and solve a problem which has baffled 

 previous investigators. 



A number of observations upon the habits of Glos- 

 sina palpalis are set forth. Dr. Koch is of opinion 

 that crocodile-blood is the principal food of this fly, 

 but that other animals also contribute to its nourish- 

 ment, especially the hippopotamus. Experiments 

 were made on the effects of clearing the vegetation 

 in spots haunted by the fly, with results confirmatory 

 of the experience of others, that this is an effective 

 .method of banishing the fly. 



At the beginning of the section dealing with 

 etiology in this report. Dr. Koch points out that the 

 more important facts bearing upon this subject have 

 already been made known by the work of others, and 

 that consequently the investigations of the German 

 Commission can only pretend to fill some gaps and 

 contribute towards "completion of the etiologn/." It 

 is doubtless for this reason that Dr. Koch so seldom 

 mentions the results of other investigators in his 

 account of his own observations, and often writes in 

 a manner which might lead those unacquainted with 

 previous work on the subject to think that his 

 observations were new. As a matter of fact, the 

 only discover}^ which can be claimed bv Dr. Koch 

 and his collaborators as entirely original, so far as 

 the etiology of sleeping sickness is concerned, is that 

 of the occurrence of trypanosomes in the salivary 

 glands of the tsetse-fly. This important discovery, 

 which was first announced in a preliminary com- 

 munication to a German medical periodical in 1907, 

 had not been made previously by any investigator, 

 and was received at first with some scepticism, but 

 has since been confirmed by Prof. Kleine and Sir 

 David Bruce. 



Prof. Beck's section on the diagnosis of sleeping 

 sickness deals in turn with gland-puncture, lumbar 

 puncture, and blood-investigation. The last of these 

 methods is considered the surest when carried out in 

 a manner which w-as employed by the Commission, 

 and is described in detail ; it is stated to have often 

 given positive results when other indications were 

 negative, especially in those cases in which the glands 

 had become normal under treatment. 



