A™ii°chr'i9ioarm'}      Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.  145 
ing  of  plasters.  At  the  close  of  the  lecture  Prof.  Joseph  P.  Reming- 
ton thanked  Mr.  Kilmer  on  behalf  of  the  College  and  the  classes, 
stating  that  he  had  always  found  him  willing  to  give  information  on 
any  subject  with  which  he  was  familiar.  Among  the  visitors  in 
attendance  were  Dr.  John  F.  Hancock,  of  Baltimore,  and  Mr.  Otto 
Raubenheimer,  of  Brooklyn.  F.  Y. 
Trypanosomes  and  Trypanosomiases  (the  Sleeping  Disease 
and  its  Causes). — The  foregoing  was  the  subject  of  the  sixth  lecture, 
which  was  delivered  on  Friday,  December  17,  by  Dr.  Leonard  G. 
Rowntree,  instructor  in  pharmacology  and  experimental  therapeu- 
tics at  Johns  Hopkins  University.  The  lecturer  was  introduced  by 
George  M.  Beringer,  who  said  that  the  committee  had  chosen  rather 
a  wide  range  of  subjects  for  this  series  of  lectures,  believing  that 
the  pharmacist  should  know  something  more  than  pertains  directly 
to  his  calling. 
Dr.  Rowntree  stated  that  in  both  Germany  and  England  com- 
missions had  been  appointed  to  consider  the  problems  involved  in 
the  cure  and  control  of  the  diseases  due  to  trypanosomes,  while  in 
this  country  the  subject  has  been  taken  up  by  the  universities.  The 
trypanosomes  are  microscopic  parasites  belonging  to  that  branch  of 
the  animal  kingdom  known  as  Protozoa,  and  the  diseases  set  up  by 
the  pathogenic  forms  of  this  group  are  known  as  trypanosomiases. 
A  number  of  species  of  this  protozoon  has  been  described,  the 
organisms  varying  from  24  to  75  microns  in  length.  They  are 
characterized  by  the  presence  of  a  nucleus,  a  centrosome,  chromatic 
granules,  and  a  flagellum.  They  are  very  active,  having  several  move- 
ments, and  reproduce  by  division,  starting  at  the  centrosome.  They 
derive  their  nutrition  by  osmosis,  and  multiply  very  rapidly,  an 
infected  animal  showing  the  presence  of  millions  of  the  organisms  in 
a  few  hours,  as  in  the  case  of  the  'rat.  In  1841  the  first  trypanosome 
was  described,  and  in  190 1  Dutton  found  a  patient  in  Gambia  whose 
blood  showed  the  presence  of  a  trypanosome,  which  was  later  proven 
by  Castellani,  Bruce,  Nabarro,  and  Low  to  be  the  cause  of  the  sleep- 
ing sickness.  Dr.  Rowntree  described  some  six  diseases  which 
affect  the  lower  animals  due  to  different  species  of  trypanosomes : 
(1)  one,  Try  p.  Lewisi,  affecting  rats  in  all  countries,  including 
America;  (2)  a  disease  in  Africa,  nagana,  in  the  communication  of 
which  the  tsetse-fly  plays  a  part  and  which  affects  cattle,  horses,  and 
dogs,  but  not  man,  and  is  supposed  to  have  come  originally  from 
wild  animals  as  alligators  and  rhinoceri ;  (3)  a  disease  in  India, 
