18 J. W. SCOTT MACFIE — THE DISTRIBUTION OF GLOSSINA 



is moreover impossible to assert that the trypanosomes pathogenic to man do not 

 occur in the province. A polymorphic trypanosome which is morphologically 

 indistinguishable from T. gambiense is unfortunately very common in domestic 

 animals, and in a few cases parasites with posterior nuclei have been found which 

 resemble T. rhodesiense. But even if these parasites should prove to be T. brueei, 

 the danger of man becoming infected from domestic animals is not altogether 

 eliminated, for it has been suggested by Sir David Bruce that T. brueei and T. 

 rhodesiense are one and the same trypanosome.* 



But apart altogether from the danger of sleeping sickness, the question 

 of the abatement of trypanosomiasis of domestic animals merits consideration. 

 This disease is exceedingly common. Trypanosomes presenting the morpholo- 

 gical characters of T. brueei,^ T. vivax, T. nanum or pecorum, and T. theileri 

 have been found in Ilorin in the blood of domestic animals : T. brueei in the 

 horse, donkey, Fulani cattle, dwarf cattle, and sheep ; T. vivax in the horse, 

 donkey, Fulani cattle, dwarf cattle, sheep, goat, and dog ; T. nanum or pecorum 

 in the horse, Fulani cattle, and sheep ; and T. theileri in the dwarf cattle.it As the 

 insects that transmit the diseases to man and animals are the same, any measures 

 adopted with a view to diminishing the spread of the latter will apply also to 

 the former. The province of Ilorin, and indeed a large part of the rest of 

 Northern Nigeria, suffers heavily from losses due to trypanosomiasis of horses, 

 cattle, and other domestic animals ; and the wealth of the country is curtailed to 

 an even greater extent by the restriction of the districts in which stock can be 

 reared. But for tsetse-borne diseases, cattle might be raised over a very much 

 wider area of the province than is at present the case, and the numbers of 

 sheep and other domestic animals might be greatly increased. It would more- 

 over be possible to introduce some form of transport by means of animals, 

 thus opening up the country more effectually, and liberating a large number of 

 native hands for agricultural employments. In a foregoing section of this 

 paper I have remarked that the eastern division of Ilorin province is one of the 

 regions shunned by Fulani herdsmen, and I have suggested that of the tsetse- 

 flies occurring in this part of the province it is G. submorsitans that is particu- 

 larly inimical to cattle. It may be assumed at once that it is impossible to clear 



* There can be no doubt that under certain conditions trypanosomes of the types generally 

 found in animals may infect man. This fact is illustrated by the case recently published by 

 Martin and Darra (" Un cas de trypanosomiase humaine contracted au laboratoire." Par Louis 

 Martin et Henri Darre. Bulletin de la Societe de Pathologie Exotique, Tome V., No. 10, 1912) 

 in which the trypanosome was reported to have the following reactions : " Pour le virus labora- 

 toire, tres pathogene pour la souris, et manifestement du type nagana-surra, les reactions 

 d'immunite passive croisee (pouvoir protecteur du serum d'animaux, cobayes, chevres, infectes) 

 l'eloignent des Tr. brueei et togolejise et le rapprochent du Tr. evansi." 



f Considerable confusion seems to have arisen as to the type of trypanosome to which the 

 name T. brueei properly applies. It should be pointed out therefore that in this paper the 

 name T. brueei has been used when referring to a polymorphic parasite similar to that 

 described and figured by Sir David Bruce and his collaborators in the Reports of the Sleeping 

 Sickness Commission of the Royal Society, no. xi. This trypanosome is probably that for 

 which Prof. Stephens and Dr. Blacklock have recently proposed the name T. ugandae. 



% See " Trypanosomiasis of Domestic Animals in Northern Nigeria," Annals of Tropical 

 Medicine and Parasitology, vii, no. 1, 1913. 



