SLEEPING SICKNESS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 90, 15 April 1908, Page 3

SLEEPING SICKNESS.

EFFORTS TO COMBAT IT. A special correspondent of the L< kaianzeiger had an interview with ' . xn'assor "Koch in November onboard uo Piihz Regent, en route from East Africa. The professor, who was in the best of health, told the interviewer that .He had been living for 18 months, on a desolate island belonging to the Sssse group in the middle of Lake Victoria Nyanza, with an army medical ' sergeant as his sole white companion. They dwelt in a straw hut similar to those occupied by the natives, and saw only three Europeans throughout their stay—two of them i)' ; 'uag Viennese doctors, and the third a Greiman Government official. Their •i>!ii.V means of communication with the

v/orla was a primeval native boat iMshioned out of a tree trunk, which <jor:voyed them to the mainland.

bleeping _ sickness is particularly i;r.?"alent in the Sesse Islands, the v'- habitants of which are gradually .'ying off through the ravages of the <h -^ase. Professor Koch regards -leaping sickness as an enormous dan;r.sr to the whole of East Africa, unless oxhon&ive measures are taken to com•)«t it. Recently the disease has been ■iavancing from Lake Tanganyika towurcis Tabora. Whenever it appears, 'vractically the entire native population tails.victims. If the sufferers are leit to themselves they are doomed. Ihe professor discovered that the insect known as the. glossina palpalis, 7luch conveys the germs of the dis-n-«se (trypanosomae), breeds not only 021 the banks of the lakes, but also rUong the streams in the interior right ut> to their source. The disease can, -ic-orore, be spread along the whole I •.ength of the rivers. It takes a longx tune co develop, and the patient! «r:on feel no effects, although a ni;cioscopical examination may have rovcaled the existence of trypanoso;ne m the blood.

.o.::!• > inevstigations is, says the in-

terviewer, that there is a, possibility now of making a certain diagnosis,of the disease and of adopting methods to, combat it. Professor Koch's* remedy, ' consisting of subcutaneousi injections of arsenic, has proved efficacious; and the chief nieans ofv&ghtihg the disease lie in constant attendance, and ,in preventing patients from going into hitherto uninteeted districts.,. To carry this out specially trained' doctors are necessary, and clearings must be made on rivers and lakes free ,from mosquitoes; Professor Koch has ascertained that there is a distinct connection between crocodiles and sleeping sickness, as a result of searching and most, interest-: ing investigations. Wherever .crocodiles are found the disease may be discovered, but only in places, near the, banks. The blood of crocodiles forms the chief nourishment of the\ glossma, which sucks the blood between the plates of the aninaal' s hide. The ex-' termination of the glossina is impossible, but the same end may be reached by destroying the crocodiles, or by the removal of the bushes and undergrowth where the animals lurk. Professor Koch made attempts to poison crocodiles with prepared meat, but had great difficulty ,111 preventing the natives from seizing and eating it. The professor intends to publish the result of his investigations into the habits of crocodiles.