CHAPTER IV 



NOTES ON SOME TROPICAL DISEASES 



Trypanosomosis l in Man : Sleeping Sickness. 



THE first case of this disease that was described in detail was that 

 published in 1902 by the late J. E. Button. This case is referred 

 to in Part I. of this work, where a reproduction of his photograph 

 of the organism in the blood of a patient is given. Since that date, 

 as the outcome of systematic inquiry organized by the Royal Society 

 under the direction of Colonel David Bruce, the discoverer of the 

 cause of the tsetse-fly disease in animals, the sleeping sickness of 

 Africa a disease fatal to man has been shown to be but one phase 

 of human trypanosomosis ; and another tsetse fly, the Glossina 

 palpalis, has been found to be the carrier of this disease. The 

 investigations of the Commission were conducted in Uganda, 2 

 where the disease is prevalent. 



The conclusions 3 arrived at are as follows : 



I. That sleeping sickness is caused by the entrance into the blood 

 and cerebro-spinal fluid of a species of trypanosome. 



1 This term, which is framed after others, such as tuberculosis, in common use 

 appears to be preferable to ' trypanosomiasis,' which, however, is still employed. 



2 Christy found the disease centred around Lake Victoria Nyanza, and seldom 

 more than ten to fifteen miles from its shores. In the island of Buvuma fully two- 

 thirds of the population had died off at the time of Dr. Christy's visit, and half the 

 remainder were suffering from the disease. The distribution of Filaria perstans 

 did not correspond with the disease. The latter accompanied the wearing of 

 clothes and growing of bananas. Low confirmed Christy's observations, and 

 observed that there was no sleeping sickness in British Guiana, where F. perstans was 

 very common. The occurrence of both parasites in the same person was thus proved 

 to be a coincidence. Reports of the Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal 

 Society, 2nd Fasciculus, December 5, 1902, to August 4, 1903, and ibid.) Appendix. 



3 Bruce, Nabarro, and Greig, Reports of the Commission on Sleeping Sick- 

 ness to the Royal Society, 1903-1905 ; also Brit. Med. Journ., November 21, 1903. 



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