85 
NOTE ON THE DISCOVERY OF TRYPANOSOMA 
GA MBIENSE, Button 
By Professor R. ROSS and Professor R. W. BOYCE 
IN the Lancet for February 21, 1903, Professor Sherrington and ourselves 
discussed in considerable detail the question of priority regarding the discovery 
of this organism. So tar as we know, our facts have never been controverted, 
nor our opinions met by argument ; but we regret to observe that erroneous state- 
ments continue to be made in this connexion. It continues to be maintained that 
Nepveu made the discovery, although we have clearly shown that his claims cannot 
be accepted without the greatest reservation. It is also said that the parasite was 
discovered by Forde, and that Dutton only described it, or that he merely named it 
We must point out again that while Forde was certainly the first to see the parasite, he, 
as he himself stated, |z) thought that it was Filaria perstans. It was Dutton who recog- 
nized the organism to be a trypanosome ; and it was also Dutton who was the first 
to give full details regarding the morphology of this trypanosome, and also regarding 
the symptoms produced by it in the host. Some of these symptoms had certainly 
been detected by Forde, but others, andsome of the most important ones, were as cer- 
tainly detected by Dutton. Since that time Dutton and Todd have accumulated 
many fresh cases in Africa. 
As we have already admitted, the names of Forde and Dutton ought to be 
associated in this discovery ; but it is contrary to all usage to attribute the whole 
: discovery to Forde, who did not ~ecognize that the organism which he had seen was 
a trypanosome, and who published nothing on the subject' 2 ' until some months after 
Dutton had published full details and had demonstrated the importance of the 
J matter. 10 If observation without recognition is to be accepted as constituting sufficient 
grounds for discovery, then the whole of medical history must be rewritten. For 
example, many observers saw the parasites of malaria without recognizing them, long 
before Laveran both saw and recognized them in 1880. 
Several writers have attempted to change the name of the organism. They 
appear to be ignorant of the fact that a specific name once given cannot, by zoological 
rules, be changed. The name of the parasite is therefore "Trypanosoma gambiense, 
Dut ion. 
The clinical details were discovered by Dutton and Forde, and first clearly 
described by Dutton. It is not permissible to attempt to credit them to subsequent 
writers. 
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