198 
Bilharziosis in South Africa 
the Zambesi. South of the Zambesi, vve find that natives recruited 
near Beira, on the banks of the Pungvve river, cany the parasite. In 
the area inland to this strip of coast country, we see in the Table II 
that a certain percentage of the British Central African natives, those 
from the eastern border of Lake Nyassa, the Angonis from the banks 
of the Zambesi, the Makalanga from Matabeleland, have the disease. 
On the coast line, south of latitude 22° S. are the Myambaams, 
Mtyopis, Shangaans and Lourenco-Marques boys; each of these tribes 
has a certain number of their people infected. That is to say, those 
people living between the Big Sabi river and Lourenco Marques. 
Inland of these coast countries, we have Swaziland and the Transvaal. 
Table I shows that some of the Swazis have the disease, and we know 
from reports concerning the European population that many parts of 
the Transvaal are grossly contaminated. The number of sick natives 
TABLE I. 
Shotving the results of microscopical examination for Bilharzia ova of a 
number of urines collected from various tribes 
of natives. 
Tribe 
Number 
examined 
Positive 
results Percentage 
Mozambique 
190 
48 
25-8 
Quilimane* 
60 
3 
5 
Lake Nyassa 
22 
8 
36-3 
British Central African 
80 
7 
8-7 
Shangaan 
32 
6 
18-7 
Mixed East Coast gang of Shangaan, Mtyopi, Myam- 
baam, and Lourenco-Marques boys 
225 
26 
11-5 
Zulu 
31 
8 
23-5 
Pondo 
10 
2 
20 
Swazi 
44 
8 
18 T 
Mxosa 
39 
2 
5-1 
Transvaal Basuto t 
59 
i 
1-6 
British Basuto ... 
68 
— 
0-0 
Makalanga 
45 
10 
22-2 
Damara 
50 
— 
o-o 
Bechuana 
12 
2 
16-6 
Total 
970 
131 
14-0 
* The results obtained from the examination of urines taken from these natives are 
interesting. The boys were not fresh recruits; they had all been working on the mines 
for 12 months. The ova in those urines giving positive results were few and far between. 
Post-mortem examination of fresh recruits show a very much higher per cent, infected. 
See Table III. This seems to suggest the advantage of removing patients from an in¬ 
fected area. 
t The positive result obtained among the Transvaal Basuto was in urine from a boy 
who had been living in the Rustenburg district for some time. 
