92 LEISHMAN BODIES AND LEISHMANIASIS 



being injected daily for from five to 40 days. As remarked else- 

 wliere, it must be administered very carefully and slowly since 

 it is likely to produce much irritation. 



Practically nothing can be said about the prevention of the 

 disease, since its method of transmission is unknown. The 

 natives of South America beheve that it results from the bite of 

 some jungle insect, probably a horsefly (tabanid), but nothing 

 definite is known about it. Blackflies, moscjuitoes and ticks 

 have been suggested as transmitters also. Since the disease is 

 contracted in forests in the daytime, and the sores usually de- 

 velop on exposed parts of the body, tabanids seem to be in- 

 criminated by circumstantial evidence. However, it is possible 

 that houseflies or other non-biting insects may carry the infection, 

 the punctures of biting insects serving merely to open a door of 

 entrance for the parasites. Natives of Paraguay believe that 

 rattlesnakes harbor the parasites and that the latter are trans- 

 mitted to man either by blackflies or ticks, both of which attack 

 the snakes. Although only a popular belief, this is interesting in 

 view of the incrimination of geckos as reservoirs of oriental sore 

 parasites in Algeria. 



It would seem obvious that in case a skin sore of the espundia 

 type develops, great care should be taken not to allow the mu- 

 cous membranes to become infected by contact. Yet a case is 

 cited by da Matta where an ignorant wood-cutter who had been 

 tormented by espundia of the skin for five years and who persist- 

 ently cleaned his nose with infected fingers, never developed the 

 slightest affection of the mucous membranes. In other cases, 

 simultaneous affection of the mucous membranes and skin is 

 common. 



