H. L. Duke 
419 
The returns from 1900 to 1903 are doubtfully exact. The figure for 1902 
is probably too high. The deaths during 1903 have been recorded as 30,441, 
but an error was found in the compilation of the original returns. After 1903 
the returns are more reliable. It is probable, however, that the maximum 
number of deaths occurred in 1902, as indicated by the table, and thereafter 
declined. 
In 1906 it was not believed that this decline was due to any diminution in 
the virulence of the disease but “simply to the reduction of possible victims in 
the affected areas." It was also believed that all the inhabitants of the Sesse 
and Buvuma Islands were not only “possible victims,” but that they were 
nearly all (90 per cent, or over) actually infected in 1906-1907. Until 1909, 
when the islands were depopulated, and the survivors removed to the main¬ 
land, the number of inhabitants was not known, nor was any exact count kept 
of the number of Buvuma islanders removed during that year. The number 
of Sesse islanders removed was exactly recorded as 11,776 and this gave, for 
the first time, a secure basis for estimating the number of deaths per thousand 
for the years immediately preceding and succeeding. The population of the 
Buvuma Islands was estimated to be “barely 14,000 " in 1906, and the number 
of islanders removed in 1909 was estimated by the officer in charge of the 
operations to have been 11,000. The number removed has also been stated to 
be between 5000 and 6000, but we cannot find any basis for this estimate, and 
regard the larger figure as probably more nearly correct. It is thus possible 
to secure some idea of the death-rate per thousand among the Sesse and 
Buvuma islanders, both before and subsequent to their removal, as shown by 
the following table. 
Table, showing deaths returned as by sleeping sickness among the Sesse and 
Buvuma islanders, with estimated number of islanders and deaths per 
thousand. 
Buvuma Islanders 
Sesse Islanders 
Year 
Deaths by 
sleeping 
sickness 
Estimated 
number of 
islanders 
Indicated num¬ 
ber of deaths 
per thousand 
Deaths by 
sleeping 
sickness 
Estimated 
number of 
islanders 
Indicated num¬ 
ber of deaths 
per thousand 
1900 
5,137 
56,322 
91 
789 
23,166 
39 
1901 
6,874 
51,185 
134 
1,048 
22,377 
47 
1902 
19,049 
44,311 
428 
1,950 
21,329 
91 
1903 
5,174 
25,262 
205 
2,549 
19,379 
132 
1904 
3,503 
20,088 
175 
2,238 
16,830 
133 
1905 
2,585 
16,585 
155 
918 
14,596 
63 
1906 
1,001 
14,000 
71 
718 
13,578 
52 
1907 
1,314 
12,981 
99 
678 
12,960 
52 
1908 
667 
11,667 
55 
506 
12,282 
41 
1909 
258 
11,000 
23 
436 
11,776 
37 
1910 
93 
— 
8 
188 
— 
16 
1911 
67 
— 
6 
84 
— 
7 
1912 
25 
— 
2 
11 
— 
1 
1913 
15 
— 
1 
8 
— 
1 
1914 
6 
_ 
1 
7 
l 
