APPENDIX C 297 



or to prevent the occurrence of relapses. In the course 

 of time probably a serum-treatment will be possible. 



Prevention consists in avoiding the places where the 

 ticks are found, such as old rest-houses and native 

 huts, and in enforcing absolute personal cleanliness on 

 the part of native servants, in whose clothes the 

 infected ticks are often carried. The ticks move about 

 and feed at night, and it is most important, by means 

 of a well-arranged mosquito net, and by taking care 

 that no bedding touches the ground, to prevent their 

 gaining access to the bed. 



The tick of African tick fever, Ornithodoros moitbata, 

 is exceedingly common throughout Tropical Africa 

 from the East Coast to the West. ' Its body is flattened 

 from above downwards, and is oval in outline. Its 

 colour, when alive, is greenish-brown. The integu- 

 ment is hard, leathery, covered with close-set granules 

 or tubercles, and marked both above and below with 

 symmetrically arranged grooves. The females may 

 attain about 8 millimetres in length, by 6 to 7 milli- 

 metres in breadth ' (Manson). 



The ticks live in the huts of the natives, and hide 

 during the day in cracks in the walls, or in the thatched 

 roof, or in the grass on the floor. They move about 

 at night in search of food. In some districts the 

 natives have learnt to protect themselves against the 

 ticks by frequently plastering the walls and floor 

 of their huts with fresh cow-dung; but as a rule, 

 especially in rest-houses along the roads, they take 

 no trouble to avoid their attacks. 



