326 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xxvi 
blood. It is an unpleasant remedy, but at the present 
time it is the only reliable drug available against this 
deadly disease. 
The medical profession has long realised that the use 
of drugs in many diseases is really drawing a bow at a 
venture. Certainly so far as contagious diseases are 
concerned prevention is better than cure. To avoid 
bites from the tsetse fly becomes an injunction fairly 
easily obeyed in the case of Europeans who w^ear clothes, 
and especially if they will remember that 
can bite through thin coverings, especially the stockings 
of ladies. The case of the naked natives is different, for 
they are ignorant and indifferent. The fishermen on 
the shores of the Victoria Nyanza allow the flies to 
rest on their skin in dozens, and they take no trouble to 
disturb them. When the matter is explained to these 
folk, they reply that the flies had always been on the 
lake shore in their time and during the life-time of their 
fathers, and were harmless. A cheap and effective 
method of suppressing and exterminating the fly is 
needed. Vigorous steps in this direction are being 
taken. The Uganda shores of the lake have been cleared 
of natives ; the narrow strips of land where tsetse flies 
abound have been cleared of jungle and rushes, especially 
bear landing-stages, ferries, roads, and wells, with 
encouraging results. The old motto which runs:— 
“ Oppose a distemper at its first approach, ” must be 
replaced by one probably as ancient—“ Prevention is 
better than cure.'’ 
Tsetse Fly (natural size). 
