FROM ADEN TO MOMBASA. 
45 
roofs and preferred to sit or lie in the full blaze of the noonday sun. 
Even there many of them shivered almost constantly and drew 
about their emaciated limbs the brown rags of cloth which partly 
covered them. The drawn features and haggard eyes testified to 
the gnawing pains that afflicted them, and the unhappy creatures 
appeared to have special dread of being touched. 
''Many of them were in the peculiar state of lethargy which 
undoubtedly has been the cause of the misleading name by which 
the disease has become commonly known. Unfortunately, sound 
sleep seldom comes to the relief of the doomed ones, and the torpor 
in which they lie results from the constant strain of neverceasing 
pain. Many of them put an end to their miserable lives, and it is a 
wonder that more of them do not do so. 
LIKE SKELETONS IN LAST STAGES. 
"Farther in we came to those who were in the last stages of the 
disease. Lying about on beds or withered leaves, they had reached 
a decree of emaciation that was horrible to see. The unhappy 
creatures looked like skeletons, and only their moaning indicated 
the presence of life. A few in whom nature was struggling hard 
had gone mad, and in spite of the fact that they had to be chained to 
heavy logs to prevent their doing harm, one almost congratulated 
them on their insensibility to the tortures that afflicted their fellow 
victims. The frenzied laughter of these unfortunates seemed dread¬ 
ful in that abode of suffering and death. 
"It is generally accepted that a variety of the tsetse' fly, the 
glossina falpalis, is the principal, if not the only, agent for the trans¬ 
mission of the disease. This fly exists in enormous numbers on 
the shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza and on the borders of other 
lakes and rivers of Uganda. Its habitation, however, is restricted 
to a narrow growth adjoining water, and a width of two miles is 
believed to be the limit of the infested zones. Of about 300,000 
persons inhabiting the shores of Victoria Nyanza and the islands 
in the great lake more than 200,000 have been swept out of exist¬ 
ence, and it remains to be seen whether the remainder can be saved. 
"The extermination of the tsetse seems a hopeless task, and it 
