The Mystery of Sleeping Sickness Solved.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8959, 7 December 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Mystery of Sleeping Sickness Solved.

The mysterious and fatal "sleeping siek!:<ris or "lethargy** of Centr.il Africa, from which no victim has yet escaped, is now definitely known to be due to a blood j>arasite, conveyed to the body by the bito of a fly, and finally reaching the bruin. This discovery has been made by a British Government commission that has been working on the problem since 1902. Its head, Colonel D. Bruce, liad previously solved the mystery of the tsetse lly'6 fatal bite, which lie proved to owe- its dangerous results to the communication of an organism to the blood of bitten cattle or other animals. &iys an editorial writer in Kngineering London. October 6), describing the methods : and results of Colonel liruce :

"There were many features suggesting a fly-borne disease. \\ itli the assistance of the native authorities, he collected all the insects of the district, carefully keeping those from the different localities separate, and studying their habits. A species of (Jloesina, the Glossina palpalis, was soon tingled out as the most ldtelv carrier of the sleeping sickness, and maps were prepared marking the spots in red or blue at which the flv occurred or did not occur, and ruber similar ma]>s, showing the distribution of the sleeping sickness. \\ iieii ' superposed, the two maps were fcur.d to lie in good agreement. Thus it was asceri'lined tint tin; sleeping sic.OK-ss is chicfly piev.ilent in the jungles on the bania. of rivers and lakes; the fly does not voluntarily move for more than a few yards from these jungles. Many natives in these districts were found to be suffering from infection by Trypanosoma gambiense. Flies feeding on ti;o.-e native infected donkeys on which they wore allowed to Into in the course of weeks and months. The length of the period after which the protozoan will make its appearance in the inoculated monkey depends upon the time which has passed since the fly took up the tryiuinosoma from an infected animal. If n;"ore than 48 hoars intervene, no infection takes place. The infected monkeys suffered in all Tcspects like men ; they fell into the same listless letlurrgy and became prone to all sorts of disease. There was. thus, no doubt left- as to the direct connection of both the Olossina palpalis and the Trypanosoma gambiense with sleeping sickness.

"X!io full course of the sickness is not cleared up yet, however. The fly sucks up the protozoan with the blood of the ani--111:11 it bites. The protozoan passes into the stomach of the fiy, and out again tlirotiirli the proboscis together with tlio s.iliva. Whether the fly itself suffers, as the anopheles, the carrier of malaria, ap[K'ais to do, is not- yet .settled. In tlie blond of the infected man the protozoal! multiplies, but not necessarily to any great extent. The victim hardly fee-Is any pain on being bitten, and for one. two, or even three vears 110 wrong may be suspected ; for it "is only -when the protozoan reaches the cerebrospinal canal that characteristic rivmptoms are observed. The blond vessels of the brain become obstructed, so that tiro lira in is no longer nourished. The lymphatic glands of the neck, particularly, also become affected." So far. we arc told, the disease lias proved absolutely fatal, although arsenicpromises some chance of relieif. More than one hundred thousand people succumbed to the sickness in Uganda from ISOI and 190-4, and the majority of the people in the infected districts appear to be doomed. That most of the victims are natives is due to the fact taat the\ themselves freely to tlw fly and refuse to biliove that its" bite is dangerous. .Says ti.e writer: "It is not to be wondered at that they will not believe in the fatality of a fly-bite which thty do net mind at the time, and which is V.ot supposed to act until years afterwards. The natives of the shores and numerous islands of the "Victoria Xyanza, which is sliallow in those parts, dangle their le-is in the warm water, and do not trouble to brush away the fly which settles on their limbs. 'Lhe white man is more careful, of course. Tlie administrator of the district had all the jungle surrounding his house cut down, and tlie whole house made mosquito and fly-proof. That precaution cannot evervwhere be applied in its full exent ; but it is satisfactory to know that it is effective. Wliat is to become of the poor native, who even when alive to the danger. :s too weak to ward off the flics which are eager to feed upon him, is liard to sav. Isolation would be of no use these cases, unless vigorously applied in the sense that the natives of an infected locality are forbidden to Ic-ave their district lest t'nev should feed flies not, so far, ini'ecte<i. Such a quarantine has been persisted in. but only in cases where medical science could reasonably do something for ti.-e imprisoned patients. 1-1 this the doctors are, so far, powerless. '