292 TSETSE AND BUFFALO IN EAST AFRICA 



by the physical aspects of the country and that for its existence 

 it must have a humid, low-lying position. 



Major Bruce in his excellent report (" Further Report on 

 Tsetse-fly Disease and Nagana in Zululand," 1897, p. 20), says : 

 " That the presence of wild animals in the vicinity of horses and 

 oxen is not the only factor in the problem is shown by the fact 

 that in the old days when big game was numerous and roamed 

 over the whole country, hunters and travellers never complained 

 of fly until they encountered the disease in low-lying ti-acts of 

 country or along the large river valleys." 



As in the Hermansdorp district of Cape Colony herds of 

 Buffalo are still to be found, yet Tsetse-fly with its concomitant 

 disease is unknown, so in the high altitude of the Kedong 

 6000 feet), in this Protectorate, herds of Bufialo are to be met 

 with, greatly reduced in numbers by rinderpest within recent 

 years it is true, yet neither Tsetse-fly nor Tsetse-fly disease have 

 ever been known to occur, nor has the fly or its disease been 

 heard of in the Baringo district of the Uganda Protectorate, 

 where herds of Bufialo and other big game exist. 



When studying the causes which rendered the Island of 

 Mombasa uninhabitable for horses, I ascertained that an 

 organism, the morphology of which was identical with that 

 found in animals sufiering from Tsetse-fly disease, was found in 

 donkeys which had never left the island. 



I expressed an opinion then (vide " Preliminary Report as to 

 the causes which rendered the Island of Mombasa uninhabitable 

 for horses in 1899 ") with regard to African Nagana and Indian 

 Surra being one and the same disease, and as the occurrence of 

 Surra cannot be attributed to the presence of wild animals or 

 Tsetse-fly, we must explain, ere we destroy the buffalo in an 

 attempt to stamp out Nagana, why a disease identical with that 

 caused by the bite of the Glos&ina morsitans occurs in places such 

 as Mombasa, where Tsetse-fly and buffalo are non-existent. 

 I have, etc., 

 (Signed) Robert J. Stokdy, M.R.C.V.S. 



(Vety. Officer, E.A.P.). 



Naieobi, 



East Africa Protectorate, 



3rd September, 1901. 



Dr. Radford to R. J. Stordy, Esq., M.R.C.V.S, 



Dear Mr. Stordy, — Many thanks for sending me the 

 communications you have received from Sir Charles Eliot, re the 

 Buffalo and Tsetse-fly. 



That the two should be associated is not extraordinary when 



