-7- 



the Old and New Worlds and supported the suggestion that some sort 

 of insect was involved in its transmission. He and others 

 unsuccessfully attempted to demonstrate leishmaniasis transmission 

 using fleas ( Ctenocephal ides canis and Pulex irritans ), mosquitoes 

 ( Stegomyia fasciata = Aedes aegypti ), bed-bugs ( Cimex sp.), and sand 

 flies ( Phlebotomus sp.). On another occasion, Wenyon (1911) 

 dissected a number of wild-caught sand flies from Aleppo and observed 

 " Herpetomonas " flagellates in about 6% of the specimens; he 

 acknowledged the possibility that what appeared to be harmless 

 parasites of sand flies might, in fact, be developmental forms of 

 J_. tropica . Wenyon's discovery marked the beginning of intensified 

 efforts by numerous researchers to study al 1 aspects of the parasitic 

 relationship between Leishmania and the sand fly host. For the next 

 30 years investigations progressed mainly on two fronts, in North 

 Africa and Palestine with oriental sore, and in India with kala-azar. 



Old World Leishmaniasis 



Leishmania tropica (cutaneous leishmaniasis, "oriental sore") . 

 In a note on the etiology of oriental sore in Mesopotamia, Patton 

 (1919) believed that _P. papatasi Scopoli and probably _P. minutus 

 Rondani were carriers of the parasite. Acton (1919) showed that the 

 distribution on the body of oriental sores corresponded to the 

 distribution of bites by Phlebotomus . In 1921, Sergent et a!., 

 working in Algeria, first described the transmission of oriental sore 

 to a human. They divided 559 sand flies into 23 batches, crushed them 

 in saline and inoculated the resulting suspensions into the arms of 23 

 volunteers. The flies had been collected in Biskra, an endemic center 



