SLEEPING SICKNESS : DRUGS 35 



sodium arsenate, and Button and Todd in the 

 Congo used that form of arsenious mixture known 

 as Fowler's solution. Later, in 1905, Dr. Wolfer- 

 stan Thomas treated some human patients at Liver- 

 pool with the organic compound of arsenic known 

 as atoxyl, and though other arsenic compounds 

 have been used since, yet atoxyl treatment probably 

 remains one of the best hitherto devised. Arseno- 

 phenyl-glycine and arseno-benzol, otherwise known 

 as salvarsan and " 606," have also been tried, but 

 the latter has not been a success in the treatment of 

 sleeping sickness, though valuable in the treatment 

 of certain other tropical diseases. Antimony also 

 has been used, either in powdered form as the metal 

 or in compounds such as tartar emetic, or in other 

 organic compounds, unfortunately often without very 

 encouraging results. Further, complicated drugs of 

 the benzidene and benzo-purpurin series, such as 

 trypan red and trypan blue, have also been tried, 

 sometimes alone, sometimes in mixtures with the 

 other compounds mentioned previously ; but so far 

 they have not been a success. 



A matter that now demands the most serious con- 

 sideration is the possibility of the spread of sleeping 

 sickness to other parts of Africa. Two main roads 

 are open to invasion Egypt on the north, and 

 Rhodesia or Nyasaland on the south. Much 

 increase in the commerce of West Africa, the Congo, 

 and Central Africa, has occurred of late, and the 

 possibility of the infection spreading to other tropical 

 regions such as South Asia by means of ships needs 

 careful attention. South India in particular is in 



