MEDICAL STJRVP:Y OF THE TOWN OF TAYTAY. 295 



No species of the genus Glossina (comprising the tsetse flies) has yet 

 been found in the Philippine Islands. In this connection, it may be 

 mentioned that during the year 1908, a report became circulated in Ma- 

 nila that a case of human sleeping sickness, with trypanosoma infection, 

 had been discovered in the Islands. The report gained credence, probably 

 chiefly owing to the fact that the following title of a paper, "Human 

 Trypanosomiasis in the Philippine -Islands. First Eeported Case," was 

 printed in the programme of the annual meeting of the Philippine Islands 

 Medical Association held in February, 1908. The paper, however, Avas 

 not read at this meeting and has not since been published ; but the state- 

 ment was made later in a Government report from the Philippines that 

 one case of sleeping sickness had been detected through the year and news 

 had been received of another suspected ease in the Province of Albay. 



The evidence in regard to this matter is as follows : Mr. Willyoung, of 

 this Laboratory, Avas sent on a trip to some of the southern islands to 

 perform microscopical examinations of a number of lepers. Specimens 

 of the blood of these cases, some 60 or 70, were taken, and, upon the 

 return of Mr. Willyoung to Manila, these were stained in the Laboratory 

 by an assistant. Upon examination of these specimens microscopic- 

 ally, Mr. Willyoung found in one of them several trypanosomata. He 

 therefore made a second visit to the locality where the specimens had 

 been collected and visited the people from which these specimens were 

 supposedly taken. However, he was unable to locate the particular pa- 

 tient from whom he thought the specimen might have been taken. The 

 question then arose, was the specimen one of human blood, or was it one 

 from a horse infected with surra, or one from some laboratory animal 

 infected experimentally, which the assistant accidentally mixed with the 

 other specimens. 



The writer was absent from the Pliilippines at the time this slide with 

 the trypanosomata was encountered, but upon his return he was shown the 

 specimen in question. As the preparation was already hardened, and 

 stained and mounted in balsam, there seemed little chance of being able 

 to diff'ereiatiate the nature of the blood by means of the precipitin or com- 

 plement deflection test. Measurements of the red corpuscles showed the 

 average diameter to be very slightly under that of human red corpuscles. 

 However, by means of these measurements, it was obviously not possible 

 to determine definitely tluit the specimen was not one of Inimau blood 

 though from the character of the leucocytes it was e\'i(lently not horse 

 blood. It is also impossible to difi'erentiate certainly the hunum trypa- 

 nosoma from the trypanosoma of surra by microsco[)ical examination 

 alone. 



The report of this case, therefore, nmst remain in doubt. Fp to the 

 present time no definite case of sleeping sickness has apparently been 

 discovered in the Philippines. 



Infections with aniinal parasites. — An examination of the f«ces of 



