SLEEPING SICKNESS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4826, 27 March 1925, Page 1

SLEEPING SICKNESS.

♦VAR ON SCOURGE WINNING. TSE-TSE FLY DISAPPEARING. Appearing slightly uncomfortable in his conservative new suit of gray tweed, Dr. Arthur K. Selby, a passenger sailing on the Olympic, said that throughout his ten years hi Central Africa he had been compelled to dress in white duck or risking catching the age-old scourge, sleeping sickness (says the New York Times). Dr. Selby, an English medical missionary, arrived at San Francisco from Africa, two weeks ago, and iis no,w returning to his home in England tor a vacation. Most of his life on the Dark Continent has been spent in the scourge-ridden districts, and he has devoted much of his time to study of the disease. “The tse-tse fly, the carrier of isleening sickness, will rarely settle on anything white,” said Dr. Selby. “For that reason I and most of my white colleagues adopt white attire as a precaution against infection.” Extensive measures, Dr. Selby said, had bedn taken against the Glossina palpalis, or the variety of tse-tse fly which less than 15 years ago claimed more than 200,0001 lives in the Uganda district. That species does not stray far from water, and consequently most of the gwamps of Uganda have been drained and the source of infection removed. Uganda has not been content with draining, hoyever. A method. pre-eminently successful, is being adopted on an extensive scale. It involves the cutting down of bushes and the planting of lemon grass. The fly has a great aversion for the odour of this grass. Vast plains of lemon grass may now be ween in the Uganda territory. A MORE COMPLEX PROBLEM. “The tse-tse problem becomes much more complex when Nyassaland and Rhodesia are considered,” the physician continued. “A different tse-tse, the Glossina morsitans, must be .considered, and its control does not depend upon any method yet devised by man.” He then related how, while he was in Nyassaland three yeans ago, an epidemic swiftly spread through the communities, claiming more than 600 lives. • The Glossina morsitans is far more widely distributed than its. cousin of the Uganda lowlands. Although perhaps not originally a carrier of the disease, it soon becomes infected through the blood which it takes from wild game. For ,thi{s reason, Dr. Selby said, hunters are encouraged in many districts to shoot without restriction the antelope and other beasts known to carry the germ of the disease. It had been hoped that, with the gradual removal of this live reservoir of the organism in any one district, tho disease, so far x as that region wap concerned. would be eradicated. To the great discouragement of sicentists it was discovered recently that tires Glossina morsitans was not absolutely dependent upon the blobd of animals, but could thrive on the sap of certain plants. CULTIVATING DRAGON-FLY. Dr. Selvy said it was learned a short time ago that a of dragon-fly in Nyassaland would prey on the tse-tse, so he and his colleagues are cultivating this parasite on a large scale, hoping eventually to stamp out the pestilence.

„Recent discoveries have shown that the Giossnia morsitans is inactive near water. Accordingly, most of the cattle, instead of being driven over the. plains, as formerly, are now transported when possible on river flatboats.

Dr .Selby said that in Zululand a groat game drive took place recently to eliminate the fly. More than 4000 hejid of game were destroyed,