440 



NA JURE 



[March 12, 1908 



Egyptians looked like in the third millennium ij.c. Of 

 no other people at so remote an age do we know so 

 much, and we may well bless that pious care for the 



to pursue an independent path as a painter. This is 



to be regretted from the point of view of archEeolo};v, 



as Mr. Jones would, as. his work with Prof. Garstan't; 



has shown, have been a valuable recruit to the 



ranks of the excavators. H. R. Hali . 



ilG. 2.— (31 l.uenor ol lo nb a. discuvercd. 



((') The same aficr removing the Debris. 



ancient dead which provided them with these little 

 representations of their life on earth. 



Very few slips of any kind have crept into the text, 

 but we notice one on p. 169, in which it is said that 

 the names of the vases and other offerings painted 

 (in the coffins illustrated in Fig. 171 " are given in 

 difficult hieratic writing." The names shown are in 

 lii'ear hieroglyphics, and wre unite easv to read. The 



only unworthy photograph in the book is Fig. 4, in 

 which the cliffs illustrated are bv no means clear. 



At the end of his preface. Prof. Garstang says that 

 his assistant, Mr. Harold Jones, is now leaving him. 

 NO. 2002, VOL. ']-]i~\ 



SLEEPING SICKNESS.' 

 VXJ HE'S the campaign against nial;iria was 

 commenced, our knowledge of the para- 

 sitic agent of that disease was practicallv 

 complete, and in no es.sential particular has 

 our knowledge of the mode of tninsmission 

 changed since the discovery of the anopheline- 

 malarial cycle. But .when we consider sleep- 

 ing sickness the matter is very different. Our 

 I'inowlcdge of trypanosomes is even yet in its 

 infancy. It has, for instance, been asserted 

 over and over again that sexual differences 

 exist in trypanosomes, and on this basis have 

 been constructed developmental cvcles which 

 indeed mav exist, but in oroof of which ihc 

 evidence hitherto adduced has bun practicallv 

 nil; and indeed two of the latest observers, 

 Moore and Breinl, not only find no evidence 

 of this sexual difference, at least in the blood, 

 but describe two new phases of trypanosomes, 

 viz. a so-called minute latent form, which 

 comes into existence mainly when the ordinarv 

 foinis from one cause or another have dis- 

 .i|i|)r,ired from the peripheral circulation, and 

 r(->i~.i;int c}stic forms, which appear when an 

 animal is treated with atoxyl. 



We have, according to these autliors, a 

 cycle of the trypanosome going on in llie 

 body hitherto unsuspected, and we also h;ivc 

 encystment of trypanosomes under injurious 

 influences. If this be true, it shows that, 

 unlike malaria, we know but little of the com- 

 plete life-cycle of trypanosomes, for of these 

 forms we know so far only of their bare existence. 

 This discovery, then, opens the whole question of the 

 life-cvcle of trypanosomes, including the question also 

 whether there are sexual forms or no. There are 

 further questions which are equally obscure. While, 

 in the case of malaria, shortly after the discovery of 

 the all-essential im.portance of some of the anophelines 

 in its transmission close attention was paid to the 

 habits of these mosquitoes, in the case of tsetse-flies 

 we know about their habits comparatively little. It is 

 prrhaps an exaggeration to say that we know now 

 no more about tsetse-flies than we did when Bruce 

 discovered that Gl. morsitans transmitted the trypano- 

 some (7'. brucei) of ngana, but at any mte we can 

 ■-um up in a few words what we know of the habits 

 I't the fly : — (i) The only place so far discovered where 

 ihe tsetses deposit their larvffi has been among the 

 roots of banana-trees; (2) they haunt the scrub or 

 Inish along the margins of lakes and rivers, and are 

 -cldom found far from water. The reason for this dis- 

 iribution is unknown, though one might conjecture 

 '!iat it has something to do with their food supply. 

 i;) The sources of their food supply arc also very 

 niperfectly known. Is blood a necessity for their 

 \istencp in nature? That they pursue man vora- 

 ■ muslv is known, but what other animals do they feed 

 nil? Koch recently h.as confirmed the observation that 

 they suck crocodiles' blood, and holds that this is 

 their main if not sole food; and has even gone so 

 far as to suggest that the destruction of crocodiles 

 would cause the disappearance of the ftv. The 



J Proceedings of the First Internation.il Conference on the Sleeping 

 .*^ickness held at London in June, IQ07 ; and further paper resfecting 

 the Proceedings of the Conference. 



