364 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
searching the burrows of shrew mice he has succeeded in finding the nymphs 
of an undetermined species of tick which may be concerned in the transmis- 
sion. He, however, transmitted the disease from monkey (Cercopithecus patas) 
to monkey, by means of lice. It may be recalled that Leger in 1917 found in 
the blood of the shrew in Dakar, Crocidura stampflii Jentink, 1887, a spirochaete 
to which he gave the name of S. crocidurae. This spirochaete which was iden- 
tical morphologically with the spirochaete of recurrent fever was inoculated 
by Walker and Marie, with success, into two general paralytics. 
Finally, after considerable further work on the subject, Mathis! as a result 
of cross immunity experiments, has come to the conclusion that the Dakar 
strain of spirochaete is identical with S. duttoni, and he agrees with Nicolle 
and Anderson in this respect, and that hence Spirochaeta crocidurae becomes 
a synonym of the latter species. 
Schlossberger and Wichmann? who have studied this question also, come 
to the conclusion that Spirochaeta crocidurae is very similar to S. duttoni and 
at most can only be regarded as a variety or subspecies of it. 
Although we found three species of Crocidura in Liberia, we do not believe 
that the conditions are such that relapsing fever is likely to spread from the 
hinterland into Liberia or to prevail in the interior of the country. 
Along the route of our travel in the Congo from the northern end of Lake 
Tanganyika and in the vicinity of Lake Edward at altitudes of some 3000 feet, 
tick fever has been at times particularly common. The disease is also said to 
be spreading along the lines of communication radiating from these points 
and to be invading the higher country which was formerly free from the dis- 
ease. Van Hoof ® has very recently called attention to the prevalence of the 
disease along the route from Irumu to Lake Edward, and Limbor * has noted 
its extent in Urundi. The affection in these regions is known as kimputu. While 
Ornithodoros was collected by us from a number of the resthouses along our 
route, from Tanganyika northward to Lake Albert, special precautions against 
infection were taken and none of the members of the Expedition were attacked 
by Ib. 
It may be recalled that it was at Moera, in the Ituri Forest, near Irumu, 
a route that we followed, that the Prince of Sweden became infected with 
kimputu and was so seriously ill that he had to cut short one of his very impor- 
tant zoological and botanical expeditions in these regions.° 
Bubonic plague is not endemic in Liberia and no eases of the disease were 
observed there. The fact that there is no harbor in which ships may be anchored 
and that they must le out beyond the surf has evidently served as a barrier to 
the escape of plague-infected rats from ships to the shore. 
1 Mathis: Bull. Soc. Path. Exot. (1928), X XI, 472. 
* Schlossberger and Wichmann: Zeitschr. f. Hyg. u. Infektionskr. (1929), CLX, 493. 
3 Van Hoof: Final Report, League of Nations Internat’]1 Commission on Human Trypanosomiasis. 
Geneva (1928), p. 335. 
4 Limbor: Ann. Soc. Belge Méd. Trop. (1929), IX, 45. 
5 Prince William of Sweden: ‘‘Among Pygmies and Gorillas with the Swedish Zoological Expedi- 
tion to Central Africa.’’ London (1923), p. 228. 
