RESEARCH IN BRITISH WEST AFRICA. 



353 



that Baro is the terminus of the Baro-Kano Railway, and that large numbers 

 of natives from all parts of the Protectorate are congregated there in connection 

 with the railway works. Consequently it is very difficult to say whether the 

 infection was actually contracted at Baro or before these natives ever came to 

 this town. One of the cases was from Agaie, another from Sierra Leone. 



Sleeping sickness has been reported from Bebua about 30 miles from Bauchii 

 but Capt. Bissell, R.A.M.C., writing on a visit to that region in December 

 1910, says : — " If sleeping sickness did exist at Bebua it has now disappeared." 

 As has already been mentioned, one case of human trypanosomiasis was found 

 at Kateri, and in another part of this report certain recommendations have been 

 suggested. 



A segregation camp has been inaugurated near Zaria, and from the point of 

 view of transport this region is satisfactory, provided suitable mosquito-proof 

 vehicles be used in transferring infected cases, a precaution which was adopted 

 in the case of those found at Baro. On the other hand it might have been 

 better if a site could have been selected in the Lake Chad area, which, so far 

 as can be ascertained, is a imlpalis-iree region. The number of known cases is 

 at present, however, very small, and it is not necessary to conduct such a camp 

 on a large scale, but should at any time an epidemic break out the question of 

 establishing a camp near Maiduguri might be considered. 



An ordinance ought certainly to be promulgated empowering the Resident on 

 advice from the Medical Officer to have patients suffering from trypanosomiasis 

 removed to the sleeping sickness camp. 



It is more than probable that the natives of West Africa have acquired a high 

 degree of immunity in regard to this disease, but this does not in any way justify 

 less stringent measures being adopted. In fact the revei'se is the case, inasmuch 

 as immune natives may act as reservoirs and thus be a positive source of danger 

 to the European population. For this reason every effort should be made to 

 segregate the infected and to reduce the chances of transmission by judicious 

 clearing in order to effect a diminution in the number of Glossina palpalis which, 

 so far as is known, is the only carrier in West Africa. 



Trypanosomiasis of Stock. 



(d) Trypanosomiasis in horses and cattle is very prevalent, and this disease 

 accounts annually for a heavy mortality. In this connection I would draw 

 attention to the cases cited for Lokoja, Zungeru, the lower Garara River and 

 elsewhere in this report. In the case of Lokoja it is no exaggeration to say 

 that sixty per cent, of the horses brought into the town develop trypanosomiasis 

 within a year, and of these fifty per cent, die of this disease within the same 

 period. Further, it is practically impossible to keep a horse in the Bassa 

 Province for anything approaching a whole year. 



There would appear to be two different forms of trypanosomiasis, with distinct 

 clinical systems. I have found both Trypanosoma vivax and Trypanosoma brucei 

 in the blood of horses, and although T. vivax seems to be the more common, 

 T. brucei would appear to be the more virulent. But here our knowledge of the 

 subject ends. It is practically certain that infection is not always carried from 

 horse to horse, as has been shown in the case of Bassa, and therefore we have yet 



