1907. | Anmversary Address by Lord Rayleigh. 73 
An important feature in the work of the Royal Society consists of various 
enquiries, undertaken for different Departments of Government, in regard 
to diseases which affect the tropical portions of our foreign possessions and 
dependencies. Among these diseases the attention of the civilised world has 
been for some years directed to the malady known as Sleeping Sickness. The 
first concerted action for the study and combating of this apalling scourge arose 
out of a representation made by the Royal Society to the Foreign Office in 
the spring of 1902, in consequence of which, at the request of the Treasury, 
the Society’s Malaria Committee organised and despatched a small scientific 
commission to Uganda. In the course of a short time the source of the 
disease was traced by this Commission to the presence of a trypanosome in 
the blood and cerebro-spinal fluid of the victims, and the further discovery 
was also made by the same Commission that the trypanosomes are carried by 
a species of biting tsetse-fly. These important revelations were followed up 
by detailed studies of the character and distribution both of the disease and 
of the fly. Besides sending out a succession of observers to prosecute the 
investigations of its Commission at Entebbe, the Royal Society urged upon 
the Colonial Office the necessity of organising, and under an increased 
medical staff, a more comprehensive enquiry into the local conditions under 
which the disease is propagated. This recommendation was carried out and 
some valuable information on the subject has been obtained. Meanwhile, 
though various drugs had been tried with at best only temporary success, 
no lasting remedy had been found for the malady, which has continued to be 
fatal and to spread steadily over Central and East Africa. The various 
European Governments which have possessions in those regions have at last 
determined to make a united effort to cope with Sleeping Sickness through 
the instrumentality of an International Conference having a separate bureau 
in each country concerned and a central bureau in London. The object of 
this co-operation will be to collect information bearing on the disease, to 
devise and carry out such scientific researches as may seem to be necessary 
and to concert measures for dealing with the disease and the populations 
affected or likely to be affected by it. The Royal Society, having led the 
way in this subject, has been invited to give the proposed combined inter- 
national action its support. The Society welcomes the proposal and will be 
prepared to render every assistance in its power. In the meantime our 
‘Tropical Diseases Committee is continuously and actively engaged in the 
endeavour to discover a drug that may prove effective in the treatment of the 
‘disease. Their investigations have been directed to the study of trypano- 
-somiasis in rats and the latest results obtained are such as to encourage the 
hope that at least in this direction their labours have been successful. 
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