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THE RELAPSING FEVER OF TROPICAL AFRICA. 
A REVIEW. 
By EDWARD HINDLE, Ph.D., A.R.C.S., F.L.S. 
Beit Memorial Research Fellow. 
{From the Quick Laboratory, Cambridge.) 
(With two Maps and one Chart.) 
Introduction. In the following pages an attempt has been made to 
give a short summary of our knowledge of the Relapsing Fever of 
Tropical Africa, and also to include the results of my own experiments 
and observations on this disease. The literature on the subject is 
already somewhat considerable and widely scattered, therefore no apology 
is needed for bringing it togethei’. 
The term “Tick-Fever” has been employed to denote so many 
different diseases {e.g. piroplasmosis, spirocbaetosis, tick-bite fever, etc.) 
in both man and animals, that it is hoped the name will be dropped 
from the literature, as it is too ambiguous to be of any use. The term 
“Relapsing Fever of Tropical Africa” has been employed throughout 
the present paper to denote the disease caused by Spirochaeta duttoni, 
and this name will serve to distinguish it from the other relapsing 
fevers of Africa, such as those of Abyssinia, Algeria, etc. 
History. The fact that the bite of Ornithodorus moubata is some¬ 
times followed by more or less serious symptoms, has been known for 
more than 50 years. Thus Livingstone (1857) mentions the disease, 
and describes the effects of the tick’s bite in the following words:— 
“ When sleeping in the house of the Commandant (of Ambaca, Angola) 
an insect, well known in the Southern country by the name Tampan, 
bit my foot. It is a kind of tick, and chooses by preference the parts 
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