414 BLOOD DISEASES. 



urine becomes rauch altered, viscid, of a dark yellow or orange- 

 green colour, frequently containing albumen and blood. Tiie 

 animal becomes emaciated, and great thirst is invariably present. 

 There are occasionally catarrhal symptoms. The lungs may be 

 more or less congested, and breath fcjetid. There are periods of 

 remission, marked by improved health, which is merely transi- 

 tory, as repeated attacks of increasing intensity finally end the 

 animal's liie. This disease, according to the condition and age 

 of the animal attacked, may last from a few days to several 

 months before death occurs. It is very fatal. The disease, 

 until quite recently, has not been amenable to any line of 

 medical treatment. Professor Lingard, however, has been 

 experimenting with the arsenic treatment, with some amount 

 of success in patients possessed of vigorous constitutions. 



The investigations as to the origin of this deadly parasite, the 

 cause of surra, point to the probability that it is to be found in 

 the food and water. The micro-organism (apparently identical 

 with that of surra) found in the blood of 30 to 40 per cent, of 

 rats experimented upon, suggests the necessity of preventive 

 measures being particularly directed towards ensuring the 

 cleanliness and purity of all kinds of food grain, more par- 

 ticularly when it has lain in any quantity for some length of 

 time, and subjected to the risk of contamination with the 

 excreta of the rat species. The purity of the drinking water 

 also demands attention. As to medicine, it is obvious that in 

 this, as in all other diseases due to micro-organic invasion of the 

 blood fluid, the effects are as yet unreliable. 



THE TSETSE FLY DISEASE, OK NAGANA, IN ZULULAND. 



Surgeon-Major David Bruce, A.jM.S., has published his in- 

 vestigations into the causes and nature of this disease — December 

 1895 — and seems to have satisfactorily proved that it is identical 

 with surra ; the htematozoon being probably conveyed to horses, 

 cattle, donkeys, and dogs by the tsetse fly, and characterised, like 

 surra, by a rapid diminution of the red corpuscles — from o^ 

 millions to 2| millions per cubic millimetre. 



Dr. Bruce records several experiments, the value of which will 

 be gained by reading the following " Postscript." 



