86 
V. JANUARY TO JUNE, 1914 
Niger in the north-west to the Zambesi in the south- 
east. Shall we now conquer it ? A systematic cam- 
paign against it over this wide district would need many 
doctors and the cost would be enormous. . . . Yet, 
where death already stalks about as conqueror, the 
European States provide in most niggardly fashion the 
means of stopping it, and merely undertake stupid 
defensive measures which only give it a chance of 
reaping a fresh harvest in Europe itself. 
* 
Hs * 
After the sleeping sickness it is the treatment of sores 
and ulcers which takes up most time. They are far 
more common here than in Europe — one in four of the 
children in our school has a permanent sore. What is 
the cause ? 
Many sores are caused by sandfleas [Rynchopnon 
penetrans), a species much smaller than the common 
flea. The female bores into the tenderest part of the 
toe, preferably under the nail, and grows under the skin 
to the size of a small lentil. The removal of the insect 
causes a small wound, and if this gets infected through 
dirt, there sets in a kind of gangrene, which causes the 
loss of a joint, or even of a whole toe. Negroes with ten 
complete toes are almost rarer than those who have 
one or more mutilated. 
It is an interesting fact that the sandflea, which is 
now a regular plague to Central Africa, is not indigenous 
there, but was brought over from South America as late 
as 1872. In ten years from that time it had spread aU 
over the Dark Continent from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. In East Africa it is known as the “ Jigger.” 
One of the worst species of ants which we have here, the 
