THE NATURE OF HUMAN TICK-FEVER 
123 
forms of Sfirochaete Ziemanni — as figured by Schaudinn — (12) — are frequently 
seen in films taken from either patients or animals. With the time, instru- 
ments, and technique at our disposal, we have, to our regret, been so far 
unable to observe 111 animals and ticks developmental processes of this 
spirochaete similar to those which Schaudinn has demonstrated with 
Sfirochaete Ziemanni in the owl and mosquito. 
Distribution of the Human Tick in the Congo Free State and some Notes 
on its Binomics. 
Livingstone says: " Before the Arabs came bugs were unknown " 
one may know where these people have been by the absence or presence of 
these nasty vermin ; the human tick, which infests all Arab and Suaheli 
houses, is to the Manuema unknown . . " (2) ; and again, while at 
Nyangwe, " My new house is finished — a great comfort, for the other was 
foul and full of vermin ; bugs (Tapasi or ticks) that follow wherever Arabs 
go made me miserable " (3). Our observations tend to confirm his assertion. 
Perhaps one of the reasons for which ticks are more often found in Arab 
than m native houses is that the Arabs make better, drier buildings, and live 
in permanent villages. Native huts are temporary affairs and a slight cause, 
one or two cases of sickness, is often enough to make a community leave 
their homes and build a village elsewhere. 
In October 1903, a list of questions was sent for us by the Free State 
Government to its various districts. Information concerning the human tick 
was asked for. Since our arrival in the Congo and during our long journey 
up the river from Leopoldville to Kasongo we have constantly searched for 
the ticks. From the information thus collected we are enabled to construct 
the accompanying sketch map which shows the distribution of the human 
tick in the Congo Free State. 
We have indicated ever)' locality from which specimens have been 
received, or ticks are said, on reliable authority, to exist. Where it has been 
necessary to indicate places at which ticks are not known to exist squares, 
not circles, have been used to mark their position. 
The main Arab routes into the Free State have been indicated diagram- 
matically by straight red lines. It must be understood that the Arabs overran 
the southern part of the Free State before reaching the Upper Congo at 
Nyangwe. Maniema then became their stronghold, from which expeditions 
were sent out. They never penetrated far to the west of the Congo. The 
Free State prevented them from following tne Congo further down than its 
confluence with the Aruwimi. Their progress to the north was checked, near 
Avakubi, and to the north-east, near Beni, by powerful native tribes. They 
were practically confined, in the Free State, to the territory now called the 
Oriental province. 
Ticks seem to have come into the Free State by two routes ; from the 
East Coast, with the Arabs, into the Oriental province, and into the Cataract 
region, with traders, from the Portuguese territory to the south, where ticks 
have existed since Livingstone's time, at least. 
