THE DISTRIBUTION OF GLOSSINA IN THE ILORIN 

 PROVINCE OF NORTHERN NIGERIA. 



By Dr. J. W. Scott Macfie, M.A., 



West African Medical Service. 



(Plates I— VII and Map.) 



With the rapid development of Northern Nigeria, following the British 

 administration and the completion of the railway from Lagos to Kano, problems 

 hitherto of minor importance are continually coming into prominence. Amongst 

 these the abatement of trypanosomiasis is a matter of medical and entomological 

 interest. As the confidence of the people grows there is an increase of inter- 

 communication, which inevitably involves a danger of the spread of such diseases 

 as sleeping sickness from existing foci. In Northern Nigeria these foci are at 

 present peculiarly isolated, but they will gradually lose their isolation as the efforts 

 made to stimulate the agricultural development of the country meet with greater 

 success and the growing demand for roads, feeders for the railway, and better 

 means of transport, is satisfied. In a densely populated and naturally fertile 

 country like Ilorin the problem of avoiding this danger is particularly insistent, 

 but unfortunately also particularly difficult. In the neighbouring province of 

 Kabba sleeping sickness is said to be endemic, and might readily move westwards 

 with the opening up of the interior ; and in a large part of the province of Ilorin 

 itself tsetse-flies already spread disease amongst the cattle and horses to such an 

 extent that these animals cannot live. Nevertheless, during the dry season, herds 

 of cattle pass, day after day, in an almost continuous stream along the highroads 

 on their way to Lagos from the north. How many die on the journey no one can 

 tell, for the fate of those that sicken is to be butchered by the way, and it is a 

 common experience to come across a carcase hewn up and laid out for sale by the 

 road-side (PI. I, fig. 1). 



The first step towards discovering some remedy for this waste of cattle and 

 horses, and some means of opening up the country safely, would seem to be an 

 adequate study of the distribution of the carriers of the disease, the tsetse-flies ; 

 and it was with this object that, on being appointed to Ilorin in February 1912, 

 I undertook to make a systematic survey of the province. 



Physical Features of Ilorin Province. 



The Province of Ilorin, which is estimated to contain some 6,300 square miles 

 and supports a population of perhaps half a million of people, forms part of the 

 south-westerly portion of Northern Nigeria. The greater part of the province 

 lies in the area enclosed by the eighth and ninth parallels of latitude and the 

 longitudes 4° and 6° E. On the north it is bounded by the River Niger and the 

 province of Borgu, on the south and west by Southern Nigeria, and on the east 

 by the province of Kabba. It is divided into three sections, the western, the 



(29262—2) Wt.PJl— 21. 1000. 6/13, D & S. A 



