E. Hindle 
It is the opinion of most investigators, however, that further 
evidence of such transmission is necessary before we can consider it 
definitely proved, and with a view to testing its possibility, the writer 
has performed various experiments to see if T. gamhiense is capable 
of passing through a sound mucous membrane and also the undamaged 
epidermis. 
Numerous authors have carried on various feeding experiments with 
other species of trypanosomes, with somewhat contradictory results. 
Whereas on the one hand Musgrave and Williamson^ carried on feeding 
experiments with Surra for more than a year, with “ hundreds of 
animals,” and obtained no infection, Manteufel^, working with T. lewisi, 
always obtained infection by introducing infected blood into the 
mouths of rats. The latter author also showed that T. lewisi is 
capable of passing through the skin of rats and infecting them, but 
up to the present no similar experiments with T. gamhiense have been 
recorded. 
The following experiments, therefore, have been performed with a 
view to ascertaining w'hether T. gamhiense behaves in a similar manner 
to T. leivisi as regards passage through mucous membranes and the 
skin : 
(a) Infection per os. A number of experiments were performed 
by feeding uninfected rats with the organs of animals which had died 
of Sleeping Sickness. Although five rats were fed in this fashion, none 
of them became infected, and thus, at first, it appeared as if infection 
by feeding could not be effected. 
A further series of experiments were made, however, and instead 
of feeding the rats with the organs of animals which had died of 
trypanosomiasis, 1 c.c. of infected blood was introduced into the mouth 
of each rat by means of a syringe. Under these conditions the rats 
always became infected after an incubation period of from 7—10 
days. Great care was taken to prevent the possibility of producing 
lesions in the mouths of the rats used, and there can be no doubt that 
the trypanosomes made their way into the blood through the mucous 
membrane of the alimentary canal. 
The contradictory results obtained by feeding with the organs of in¬ 
fected animals and infected blood mixed with food, seems to be due to 
the effect of the digestive fluids on the trypanosomes. When solid matter 
1 Musgrave and Williamson, bulletin No. 3, Bureau of Government Laboratories 
Manila, P. I. 
3 Manteufel, Arb. a. d. Kais. Gesundh. 1909, vol. xxxiii. pp. 46—83. 
