SLEEPING SICKNESS IN NYASSALAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1386, 12 March 1912, Page 6

SLEEPING SICKNESS IN NYASSALAND.

OBJECTS OF THE COMMISSION. Sir David and Lady Bruce and the other members of tho Sleeping Sickness Commission appointed by the Colonial Office, under the auspices of tho Royal Society, landed at Chinde on December 10, and are now on their way up the river (writes tho Blantyre correspondent of the "Times"), On arriving hero they will stay a few days with the Governor, Sir W. 11. Manning, at Government House, before proceeding to the sleeping sickness camp near Dowa.

The importance of this commission to the world at large, and to this country in particular, can hardly be over-estimated. The appointment has been hailed by tho residents with the greatest satisfaction. Up to date 59 cases of trypanosomiasis, have been found, and medical oflieers consider that at present they are unable to discover more than 10. per cent, of the cases in existence. The fly in this country is the Glossina Morsitans. It has never been scientifically proved that this species is a carrier of the disease, and to prove or disprove thi= is the chief object of the commission. Sir. David Bruce will, in addition, endeavour to discover what connection, if any, exists between wild game and trypanosoine diseases in man and domestic" animals. "Wild animals _ will bo shot, and their bleed injected into susceptible animals, such as dogs, rats, goats, nnd guinea-pigs, in order to find out whethei- llie"Wood--of wild , unimals , contains the harmful parasites. It is also desired that the commission should determine whether tsetse flies in fly country are naturally infected with disease gCTuis. A number of (li«s from the fly country will therefore be allowed to feed on animals selected for the purpose of experiment; if disease germs are then found in the blood of these animals it will prove that flies are po infected. Sir David Bruce has. already proved that several varieties of game common to Kynssaland can become reservoirs of tho trypanosoine which causes sleeping sickness, and so become both permanent sources of infection and a means nf spreading the disease. More recently Tante, in TJsinwia, lias been successful in transmitting sleeping sickness by means of the Glossina Morsitans. Already experiments here a.rp tending to confirm the belief, so long held, that this speciesof the fsetw? is an agent in the transmission of the trypanosoine. If this be proved some means may be found for limiting the spread of the fly—better still, for its extermination. It is to be hoped, too, that the commission will find some cure, or, at least, alleviation, for tho at present mortal disease.