INTRODUCTION 7 
near Luvungi, all our travelling in the Eastern Congo, as in Liberia, in all 
some 1500 miles, was done on foot, along trails and uncompleted roads. 
From Irumu we travelled by motor to Kasenyi on Lake Albert and after 
crossing this lake by steamer, we continued by Butiaba to Entebbe on Lake 
Victoria, at which place the League of Nations Sleeping Sickness Commission 
was pursuing its investigations, with Dr. Lyndhurst Duke as chairman. From 
there we travelled to Kampala and to Jinja and the Ripon Falls, the source of 
the White Nile. Thence we journeyed by the usual route across Lake Victoria 
by steamer and by rail via Nairobi to the coast at Mombassa. Maps IV—VI 
illustrate the general routes followed in eastern Africa. 
The present Report is divided into three parts. In the first, an attempt has 
been made to describe very briefly the more important geographical and cli- 
matic features of Liberia which are of particular interest in connection with the 
development of the country and with travel through it. Next, there have been 
considered the inhabitants of the coast and of the interior and the special as- 
pects of their government, tribal customs, industries, and the conditions under 
which the natives live. Some of the more general features regarding the botany 
and zoology of the country are considered, and the sanitary conditions and the 
diseases which affect the inhabitants are referred to. In Part II, the original 
investigations carried on in connection with these diseases are next described, 
and in the following chapter the infectious diseases of useful plants which were 
discovered are dealt with. Finally a study of the parasites of wild game and of 
the relationship of a number of these parasites to human disease is detailed. 
Special observations made in the Belgian Congo are included, and a comparison 
between conditions in the two countries is made. 
Part III of the Report includes the biological investigations carried on by 
the other members of the Expedition with special reference to botany, mam- 
malogy, ornithology, herpetology, helminthology, and entomology, and the 
special reports of other scientists who have kindly studied certain parts of the 
scientific material collected during the Expedition. 
Acknowledgments. It has been intimated that it was particularly on account 
of the friendly interest that the United States has maintained in Liberia, and 
the activities of Mr. Harvey S. Firestone in developing that country, that the 
writer became interested in investigating the conditions that prevailed there. 
Through the kindness of Mr. Firestone and of his son, Mr. Harvey 8. Firestone, 
Jr., much hospitality and great assistance was rendered us in Monrovia and the 
vicinity. For these many courtesies, as well as for the interest which they have 
taken in the scientific investigations completed in this country, and in their 
publication, we again desire to express our gratitude. 
We are particularly grateful for the interest and support to our work which 
was given by the late Dr. Frederick C. Shattuck, Emeritus Professor of Medi- 
cine, and by the late Professor Charles Sprague Sargent, Director of the Arnold 
Arboretum. In addition we are especially indebted to President A. Lawrence 
Lowell and Dean David L. Edsall, for their interest and assistance in the organi- 
zation of the Expedition. 
