105 



mentioned by Dr. Baker, if due to any form of trypanosomiasis, 

 and if it be true that the camel was previously in good health, 

 indicates a disease of a more acute type than ordinary nagana ;* 

 the illness of the native, who was bitten at the same time, 

 possibly points to some septic poison having been introduced on 

 this occasion by the bites of the flies. Nevertheless the belief in 

 the existence of a camel-killing fly prevails in other parts of Egypt, 

 e.g., in the Fayum, where the Arab camel-drivers assert that there 

 is a fly in May and June which kills camels,t and in this case also it 

 is possible that Tabanus tceniola is the species implicated. In any 

 event, experiments should be made with T. tceniola in order to 

 determine whether it possesses the power of transmitting disease. 

 Should the species really be a disease-carrier among camels in 

 Northern Africa, the malady disseminated is doubtless el debdb 

 (in Egypt, el debeh), which, according to Drs. Edmond and Etienne 

 Sergent, occurs from Morocco to Syria, and more than decimates 

 camels in Algeria.} 



Tabanus variatus, Walker. 



Insecta Saundersiana, Vol. I., Diptera, Part I., p. 64 (1850). 

 PLATE VIII., FIG. 59. 



Tabanus variatus, Walk. (syn. T. rubicundus, Walk, (nee Macq.), 

 and T. serratus, Lw.), affords another instance of wide distribution, 

 its range extending from Cape Colony to Abyssinia, and north-west 



* Cf. the remarks by Nabarro and Greig (Reports of the Sleeping Sickness 

 Commission, No. V., p. 44, (July, 1905) ), on the " Jinja " disease in cattle in Uganda, 

 " known locally as ' Sutoko,' " from which it appears that " the cattle, often quite 

 well, may be stricken down and die in 24 hours." 



t Cf. Austen, " A Monograph of the Tsetse-Flies " (London : Printed by Order of 

 the Trustees of the British Museum, 1903), p. 304. 



{ Gf. Drs. Edmond and Etienne Sergent, " El-Debab. Trypanosomiase des 

 dromadaires de 1'Afrique duNord " (Annales de Vlnstitut Pasteur, T. XIX., pp. 17-48 

 (1905)). In Algeria, it was shown experimentally by the authors that Tabanus 

 nemoralis, Mg., and T. tomentosus, Macq., are able to transmit the disease when they 

 bite a healthy animal immediately after having bitten one that is infected. In one 

 successful experiment with T. tomentosus, however, there was an interval of twenty- 

 two hours between the bites. 



