NEGRO CHIEFS SACRIFICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 190, 12 August 1922, Page 19

NEGRO CHIEFS SACRIFICE.

. HOW A DOCTOR TRACED SLEEPING SICKNESS. A dying African chief's fortitude in allowing himself to be experimented upon while suffering from sleeping sickness will be commemorated shortly. The drama of this thlrty-two-year-old medical research .has just come to light, writes a "Daily Chronicle" representative. For months Mandombi, a chief from Nigeria, lay doomed, but with great courage he submitted to experiments which enabled Dr. Arthur Fagan, then a young house physician, to trace the cause of the disease and lay the foundation towards present-day medical knowledge on tbe subject. Now, at long last, the doctor is to bave recognition for his work, and the memory of the brave chief will be perpetuated. The committee of the London Hospital has decided to erect a tablet in the institution recording the circumstances of the case. The tablet may be placed over the bed where Mandombi lay. Dr. Fagan, who Is now in practice ln North London, took Mandombi's case In band soon after the chief arrived at the hospital. It was not so much for his own sake that he consented to make the journey, but rather that he might be experimented on "for the good of his people." Every four hours for two months Mandombi allowed Dr. Fagan to take a specimen of his blood for microscopical examination. Tbe experiments which had been made upon him led to valuable results. I After much research, Dr. Fagan discovered that the disease had its origin in the tsetse fly. Records of Mandombi's case have only recently been divulged, as the notes were ln the hands of the late Sir Stephen Mackenzie, and only came to light after his death. »