310 TKYPANOSOMIASIS ON UPPEK NIGEK. 

 APPENDIX H. 



Trypanosomiasis on the Upper Niger. A Note by 

 Dr. Cuthbert Christy. 



Just before publication, I have received the following com- 

 munication from Dr. Cuthbert Christy, who was recently sent 

 to Uganda, with other observers, by a Committee of the Royal 

 Society in order to investigate the causes of the Sleeping Sickness. 



Dr. Christy says : — " In 1898-99, at Jebba, on the Upper 

 Niger, there was and had been for several seasons a great 

 mortality among the horses of the Royal Niger Company's 

 Constabulary. I remember that the mortality was so serious 

 that orders were at one time given to kill all the remaining 

 horses, healthy or otherwise, and to burn down the whole of the 

 extensive grass-sheds used as stables. This was done, but 

 without having the slightest effect in staying the disease among 

 the fresh supply of horses. 



" I was at that time stationed at Jebba, as Senior Medical 

 Officer of the 2nd Battalion West African Frontier Force, and 

 in examining a fresh preparation of the blood of one of the sick 

 horses, I discovered that it contained Trypanosomes. After 

 this it became necessary for me to make a microscopical examina- 

 tion of the blood of every horse before it was purchased for the 

 Imperial forces, and I found that fuDy 50 per cent, of the horses 

 sent in at certain times of the year were infected with Try- 

 pan osome disease. 



" Each rainy season our horses had to be sent to some high 

 ground on the right bank of the river, or they invariably died. 

 A species of Tsetse was extremely common in the neighbourhood 

 of Jebba, although not universally distributed. On certain 

 reaches, often not more than a mile or so in extent, the fly made 

 canoe-travelling without a net most uncomfortable : the reach 

 that I remember best was one just north of Bussa. Again, the 

 left bank of a small stream only two or three miles above Jebba 

 was a favourite ' belt,' and a remarkable one to us, since we 

 knew little of the subject at that date, owing to the fact that 

 it was not more than four or five hundred yards in width. To 

 remain in the belt was torment, but five hundred yards from the 

 stream not a fly was to be seen for many miles." 



