68 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



routes through Africa has carried the fly and the para- 

 site into the heart of the dark continent and almost de- 

 populated large areas. The white man has found his 

 dearly bought possessions valueless because neither 

 man nor beast could live there except under constant 

 danger of the "pestilence that flieth by night." Vari- 

 ous coal-tar products have been found effective against 

 the trypanosomes. Ehrlich used trypan rose, an aniline 

 dye, and Koch used atoxyl, an arsenic compound, but 

 none proved a complete and permanent cure once the 

 vicious little animals were in the blood. 



We may question the right of the Germans to with- 

 hold knowledge of such a boon to humanity until they 

 get their price for it, although the price demanded is 

 hardly greater than the total profit that has been de- 

 rived from other remedies and not by Germans alone. 

 We may surmise, too, that the Germans could not keep 

 the secret of Bayer 205 very long anyway, for if the drug 

 comes into general use somebody will analyze it, what- 

 ever the promises under which it may be supplied. Or 

 the pharmacologists of other countries would in time 

 work out the formula for themselves since they already 

 can give a shrewd guess at what sort of a substance it is. 



But assuming that Bayer 205 is all that is claimed for 

 it and will rid Africa of its plague and that Germans 

 have a monopoly of it, then the British, French, and 

 Belgians could well afford to trade off to Germany a 

 large part of the immense territories they won by the 

 war, for the value of the remainder would be immeasur- 

 ably enhanced. It is not at all likely that such a bar- 

 gain will be struck, but the mere fact that it has been 



