HOOFED ANIMALS 7 



human beings, because of their closer relations with them. 

 It is even supposed by some that a proportion of human 

 being are themselves immune to the disease, and that 

 therefore such natives of a district where the disease 

 exists, and the fly is present to carry it about, may be, 

 unknown to themselves and others, a standing danger 

 to their fellows. 



Again, it has been pointed out that all the agitation 

 has been against the " big game/' that is the larger, 

 hoofed animals. It would not be difficult perhaps to 

 exterminate them, but it would be very much harder if 

 not impossible to get rid, in a wild uncivilized country, 

 of all the hosts of smaller buck, the hares, rats, bats, wild 

 cats, jackals, and mungooses, which though not perhaps 

 offering so large an area, each in its own body, for the 

 fly to bite, as the bigger beasts, would still no doubt serve 

 it when better fare failed. It is probable that all warm- 

 blooded creatures, and even cold-blooded ones which do not 

 contract the disease, may be capable of helping to spread it. 



Much the same arguments hold good in the case of 

 nagana, which is fatal to domestic but not to wild animals, 

 with the addition that man himself, not being affected 

 by the disease, is very likely one of the chief factors in 

 the infection of his own animals. 



On one point every one is agreed, and that is that the 

 tsetse fly must be got rid of. The difference in opinion 

 lies in how it should be done. 



" Kill off the big game of course ! " shouts one party. 

 " Don't be in such a hurry " answers the other, " you 

 can't be sure that it will achieve our purpose, from what 

 we know at present, and we can't consent to see a million- 

 year-old fauna killed off in a few years as a mere experi- 

 ment, and to please those of you who are merely seeking 

 to make a little personal profit out of its destruction." 



