416 
Tsetse Flies and Trypanosomiasis 
tectorate than in Buganda itself. A large number of deaths had already 
occurred in Busoga Province and in Buvuma Island. 
The existence of this name, mongota, in the Luganda language is of itself 
strong evidence that an identical or similar disease existed previous to the 
recognition of sleeping sickness in 1901. There is no evidence that the word 
was coined to fit a previously unknown complaint. It is possible, however, 
that several more or less obscure diseases may have been confused in the 
general application of the name. 
From a general biological point of view it seems probable that some form 
of human trypanosomiasis had existed in the Victoria Nyanza fly zone previous 
to the epidemic. So far as is known, in no other part of Africa is fly and man 
in such intimate contact as in this region. The disease is endemic in the 
Gambia, in the Congo, in Nigeria and along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, 
in fact in all places where Glossina palpalis occurs in any degree of contact 
with human beings. 
Enquiries instituted in connection with the early days of the Uganda 
epidemic elicited the fact that the disease occurred within the Protectorate in 
various palpalis areas, along the Nile, around lakes Edward and George, and 
in the ’Mpologoma region. It was supposed to have spread to these localities 
from the great lake, or, in the case of the Nile area, from the Congo. There is 
however at any rate a possibility that the disease in these districts had existed 
for years and was only recognised in consequence of the careful search which 
resulted from the epidemic. 
On this explanation, also, regarding man merely as a mammal susceptible 
to trypanosomes, we should expect to find a certain degree of tolerance in the 
natives of such a thicklv infested fly area as the northern shores and islands 
of Lake Victoria. 
The sudden increase in the number of cases of mongota , in some of which 
somnolence was perhaps not a marked feature, the terrible mortality and 
consequent disorganisation of food supplies were all unprecedented. Such a 
combination of circumstances was indeed “unknown to the natives/' although 
typical sleeping sickness cases might be recognised as mongota. 
To return to the Uganda epidemic, however, it is known that from 1898 to 
1900 there was a great deal of distress in Busoga and on Buvuma Island 
coincident with drought and failure of crops, and attended by a considerable 
mortality. Before July, 1901, there was no medical officer in Busoga, and 
very little was known of the dense and lawless populations of this Saza and the 
neighbouring Buvuma Islands. It may well be that cause and effect were 
confused in assigning this mortality to the famine which, in reality, both 
masked and accentuated the effects of the disease. 
