FEBRUARY II, 1904] 
NATURE 
Ss) 
adopted which aims first to secure a good system of 
education and regards a small increase of the rates as 
a secondary consideration. 
Readers of Nature do not need to be reminded of the 
paramount importance of improving and completing 
the facilities for higher technical and for university 
education in London. As Sir Michael Foster said in 
the House of Commons, during the second reading de- 
bate on the Education Act of 1903, the new education 
committee and the reconstituted University of London 
must work together for the better education of the 
people of London, and the new committee must be in- 
terested in university as well as in secondary and ele- 
mentary education. If, as the chairman of the Geferal 
Purposes Committee remarked on proposing the adop- 
tion of the scheme outlined above, ** the Education Act 
has any merit, it is that it co-ordinates the whole of 
the work of education in London.’ This being so, the 
University of London must be regarded as the neces- 
sary complement of any system of primary. and 
secondary education in London, and the work of the 
University on one hand and of the schools on the other 
must be fashioned so that one completes what the other 
has appropriately prepared. To ensure this the new 
committee should in its deliberations be assisted by 
broad-minded men familiar with the work and aspir- 
ations both of the schools and of the University, and the 
ordinary councillor, appointed to perform a variety of 
administrative duties, cannot be expected to possess 
the necessary knowledge and experience. 
The Acts to be administered clearly specify that “* the 
local education authority shall consider the educa- 
tional needs of their area and take such steps as seem 
to them desirable, after consultation with the Board of 
Education, to supply or aid the supply of education 
other than elementary, and to promote the general co- 
ordination of all forms of education,’’ and ‘‘ education 
other than elementary ’’ includes not only secondary 
but technical and university education. It is unneces- 
sary to point out—it has been so often done in these 
columns—that to aid higher education is by no means to 
interfere with its administration. Higher education is 
a matter of national importance, and is properly 
governed only by men with special training and varied 
experience. Though it would be a misfortune for any 
education committee to hamper the work of, say, a 
senate of a university by unintelligent and unnecessary 
dictation, it should be the aim of every such authority 
to encourage, assist and advance university work by 
every means in its power, and this can alone be effected 
by the presence at its meetings of expert members. 
In July last we described proposals made by Lord 
Rosebery in a letter to the chairman of the London 
County Council for the establishment of a great insti- 
tute of technology in London, and in a subsequent issue 
we recorded the fact that the Council had, in certain 
circumstances, agreed to provide some 20,000l. a year 
towards the maintenance of the educational work of 
such an institute. In view of such an arrangement 
as this it is surely desirable that there should be upon 
the new education committee some members at least 
fully conversant with university and higher technical 
education, even on such low grounds as to ensure that 
the Council obtains a due return for its public-spirited 
policy. So, if it were necessary, other instances of the 
practical importance of including representative persons 
with special qualifications upon the new committee 
could be given. The fact is there seems to be an in- 
grained dislike in this country to make use of experts. 
While abroad the opinions of great men of science are, 
even in national councils, treated with honour and re- 
spect, with us they are more or less ignored, and the 
No. 1789, VOL. 69] 
| as far south as S. Paolo de Loanda. 
| example set in high places is followed by authorities of 
local importance only. 
The London County Council is face to face with an 
opportunity, pregnant with possibilities, for equipping 
London educationally in a manner befitting the capital 
of a great Empire. But there is grave danger that the 
opportunity may be missed, and that London may con- 
tinue ill-provided with facilities for the instruction of its 
sons and daughters in a manner to enable them 
properly to fulfil their destiny. So vital to our national 
welfare is this question of levelling up London’s edu- 
cation that we can afford to neglect no means to ensure 
success; and to pass over and ignore completely the ex- 
| perience of those whose lives have been spent in study- 
ing educational and scientific requirements is a 
suicidal policy which we trust the good offices of the 
Board of Education will serve to avert. 
SLEEPING SICKNESS. 
LEEPING SICKNESS, or African lethargy, is a 
disease the history of which we can trace back 
no further than 1oo years. The first description that 
we know of is that of Winterbottom, who, writing of 
Sierra Leone in 1803, said: ‘‘ The Africans are very 
subject to a species of lethargy which they are much 
afraid of, as it proves fatal in every instance.’’ The 
disease has been met with along the whole of the 
west coast of Africa from the mouth of the Senegal to 
Cases have also 
occurred in the French Antilles, due to importation of 
African natives. To what extent it prevailed along the 
west coast of Africa in bygone days it is now impossible 
to say, but even at the present time many of the French 
possessions are perhaps as seriously affected as Uganda 
now is. 
It exists also in the Congo basin, but probably not at 
all to the same extent as at present in Uganda. Re- 
garding its distribution and its epidemic outbursts we 
require further information. Leaving aside these ques- 
tions, it may be well to describe first the disease itself. 
Of its incubation period, eight to eighteen months are 
possible limits, but on this point also our knowledge is 
deficient. For convenience sake the progress of the 
disease is generally divided into three stages. 
First stage:—The most characteristic sign that a 
patient has contracted the disease is a change in the 
facial expression. The intelligent aspect of the healthy 
native is replaced by a dulness, a heaviness, an expres- 
sion of apathy which makes it easy to pick out the suf- 
ferer. If examined more closely the temperature may 
be found to be raised, and the patient may complain of 
headache, of indefinite pains in the body, especially over 
the chest. 
Second stage :—The dulness of expression deepens, 
the gait of the patient attracts attention, it is shuffling. 
When spoken to the patient replies with slow, thick, 
mumbling speech. His tongue trembles, and a shaki- 
ness appears in the hands. The face is puffy and saliva 
may dribble from the mouth. The pulse is quickened, 
the temperature is raised. The patient sits about list- 
lessly and is more and more disinclined for exertion. 
He speaks only if spoken to, then he nods and becomes 
drowsy again, passing gradually into the 
Third stage :—All the signs are now well marked. 
The patient is in a state of almost complete somnolence. 
He lies helpless on his mat, oblivious of all around 
him, with filthy ulcers covering his emaciated body ; 
thus the unfortunate being passes into a condition of 
complete coma—and death. 
The whole course of the disease may last six months, 
often only two or three, and seldom twelve, and it is as 
