ATOXYL AND TRYPANOSOMIASIS 
BY 
SIR ROBERT BOYCE. F.R.S., 
AND 
ANTON BREINL. M.UD. Prag. 
(Received for fuhlicalion January 20ik, 1908J 
The brilliant discovery by the late Dr. Dutton in 1901 of Early observations 
I r • . 1 , 1 r • » , upon the use of 
the presence of trypanosomes in the blood of a patient under the Arsenic in the treat- 
care of Dr. Forde of Bathurst, to which he gave the name of of <^‘sease 
Trypanosoma gambiense, the finding very shortly afterwards, by 
an expedition sent out to Africa under the auspices of the Royal 
Society and Colonial Office, composed of Castellani, BruCE, 
Nabarro and Low, that sleeping sickness was caused by the same 
parasite {Trypanosoma gambiense'), stimulated investigation 
throughout the civilised world into the life history of this group of 
haematozoa, their mode of action in the blood and tissues of man and 
animals, and the effect of various drugs upon them. 
During the year 1907 very material progress has been made in 
the treatment of sleeping sickness, and it appears to us that the 
time is a suitable one in which to review the history of how arsenic 
and its compounds came to be employed, and to state the results of 
the treatment with this and allied drugs, in the light of the great 
experience gained in 1907, 
There is no doubt that for a very long time Arsenic has been 
looked upon as a remedy useful in trypanosomiasis in animals. Long 
before the nature of sleeping sickness was understood there existed 
much speculation with regard to the nature and treatment of Tsetse 
Fly disease in horses and cattle. First and foremost among those 
who suggested Arsenic as a means of treating this disease in animals 
stands the great observer and explorer Dr. Livingstone. 
David Livingstone, in a letter (dated March 22, 1858) to the 
British Medical Journal of May ist, 1858, mentioned that it had 
occurred to him in about the year 1847-8 to use Arsenic in the disease 
which followed the bite of the tsetse fly. He mentions how he tried 
the drug on a mare. 
B 
