SLEEPY SICKNESS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4718, 30 June 1924, Page 4

SLEEPY SICKNESS.

RESEARCH INTO NEW MALADY. GERMS IN BRAINS OF VICTIMS. In researches into sleepy sickness (encephalitis lethargies), the mysterious malady which either kills or cripples, Dr. C. da Fano, at King s College, Strand, W.C., has found minute bodies in the brains of people who have died of the disease. These may be the causative germs. He has also found that if the contents of the little blisters which appear around the mouth in pneumonia and other fevers are inoculated into animals encephalitis similar to the human form is produced. “At present,” said’ a pathologist to a “Daily Mail” reporter, “we must confess our complete ignorance concorning this new malady. It has suddenly swooped down on America and almost every country in Europe, All we know about it is that it is mildly infectious. .It does not spread like measles or scarlet fever." This year there have been 1409 cases notified in England and Wales, or nearly three times ii.s many as in the corresponding period last year and seven times as many as in 1922. in Manchester sleepy sickness has almost died out, and in Sheffield the disease is also regarded as on the wane.