184 
Relapsing Fever 
between the fingers or toes for inflicting its bite. It is seen from the 
size of a pinshead to that of a pea, and is common in all the native huts 
in this country. It sucks the blood until quite full, and is then of a 
dark blue colour, and its skin so tough and yielding, that it is impossible 
to burst it by any amount of squeezing with the fingers. I had felt 
the effects of its bite in former years, and eschewed all native huts ever 
after, but as I was here again assailed in a European house, I shall 
detail the effects of the bite. These are, a tingling sensation of mingled 
pain and itching, which commences ascending the limb until the poison 
imbibed reaches the abdomen, where it causes violent vomiting' and 
purging. Where these effects do not follow, as we found afterwards at 
Tete, fever sets in; and I was assured by intelligent Portuguese there, 
that death has sometimes been the result of this fever. The anxiety 
my friends at Tete manifested to keep my men out of the reach of the 
tamjMns of the village, made it evident that they had seen cause to 
dread this insignificant insect. The only inconvenience I afterwards 
suffered from this bite, was the continuance of the tingling sensation in 
the point bitten, for about a week ” (pp. 382-.383). 
He also writes:—“We had heard frightful accounts of this insect^ 
while among the Banyai, and Major Sicard assured me that to strangers 
its bite is more especially dangerous, as it sometimes causes fatal fever ” 
(pp. 628-629). 
As far as I am aware this is the first record of the fact that an attack 
of fever may follow the bite of the “ human tick.” 
Some years later Sir John Kirk again mentioned this disease which 
he found in the Zambesi valley as far up as Sescheke, above the Victoria 
Falls, and in North-Western Rhodesia. He writes: “The symptoms 
appear soon after the bite, and are sharp fever, vomiting and often 
delirium; in about two days these pass off, but there is no marked 
profuse perspiration as in malarial fever. After recovery, the patient 
has complete immunity from further attacks, however he may be bitten, 
but it is doubtful whether this immunity lasts* for any length of time in 
case of removal.” 
Dr Hinde (1897) in an expedition to the Congo Free State in 
1892-1894, saw sick persons who attributed their illness to the bites of 
the human tick ; but, although some of his own men died from the same 
cause, he believed that they had died through the force of their super¬ 
stitions, and not from the effects of the tick. As a result any natives 
who complained of suffering from tick-bites were treated as malingerers ! 
1 Tampans, called ‘ Carapatos ’ at Tete. 
