SLEEPING SICKNESS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1035, 26 January 1911, Page 5

SLEEPING SICKNESS.

SAFEGUARDING THE RAILWAY . TRAFFIC. By Teleeraph-Press AE6oc!ation-Cop.yrieht. (Rec. January 25, 9.5 p.m.)' London, January 25. A' : conference on 6lcoping sickness has been held in London. : It was resolved that the route of tho Cape to Cairo Railway should be inspected for the Glossina palpalis; that the railways must cross tho fly-belt at. tho narrowest point; that thero should bo no stations within the area infected ' with Glossina palpalis; and that it is essential that thero should be clear ground on either sido of tho railways.

-' .. A DREADED SCOURGE. Reports of the continued prevalenco of sleeping sickness and o£ its universal ■fatality continued to be received from all directions. Six yeiirs ago tho records for tho district of Usoga alono told of 20,000 deaths from the period of first discovery, a year previously. The disease was then spreading so rapidly that 1 30,000 deaths in one year in a district snlallev than Kansas did not inspire special wonder. In dx years 200,000 deaths from sleeping siokness are on record for Uganda. Sleeping sickness is wiping out the human race in East African regions. "The great lake shore and tho islands of the lako have been almost completely depopulated, and thousands of the sick liavo been abandoned by their terrorstricken relatives tp starvation or wild beasts." Exactly six years ago, Colonel Bruce, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, announced his conviction.that the ..sleeping., sickness, was due .to . the.aiitror duction of an animal parasite info the human .system through .the agency of tho. Glossina palpalis, a snecies of. tsetso fly, closely allied.to the Glossina. morsitans, which had' long , been known to convey fatal disease to horses and cattle. This discovery—for which some givo credit to Dr.. Bruce and others to Dr. Aldo Castellani—was soon abundantlv confirmed and tho parasite was found without' difficulty in the blood and tissues of affected persons. It belongs to the class of protozea, that is to say, of minute animalcules, each consisting of a. single cell and multiplying by fission with great rapidity. ' Thore is said to be no authenticated instanco of tho transmission of the disease fnm sick to healthy persons in districts whero the flies are not found and they are found only in the near neighbourhood of fresh water, where the vegetation is luxuriant and the shade abundant. They a quickly abandon places from which these conditions have been removed, and the belt of country in which they are'fulfilled apnears to bo a narrow ono. From some localities the' flies nppear to have been entirely banished by planting lemon grass, the fragrance of which is repugnant to them and which has the additional advantage o£ furnishing, an essential oil of commercial value. It is believed that the disease • would necessarily' die out if the flies could be destroyed or if nil tho infected nersons could be removed from fly-infested areas so that the flies themselves cotild no longer obtain the parasite from human beings." Tho attainment of these two ob-. jects is now the aim of a great scientific crusade, ; Tho flies exist in such countless numbers that their destruction is not within the limits of near possibility; but the removal and segregation of the sick is being carried into effect as' rapidly as circumstances will permit and with an increasing amount of co-oneration on.) tho part of the natives and their chiefs.