PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
885
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
19
3. Up to the present it has not been possible to locate any particular area in which the disease might be regarded as endemic. The Glossina palpalis appears to be much more widely distributed in this Protectorate than in East Africa. It is found along the banks of the Niger from Egori to Yelwa, the whole length of the Benue, on the Kaduna, and the banks of most of the smaller streams, including the Dago.
4. Medical officers have recently been supplied with maps of the Protectorate and instructed to mark all fly-belts found in their districts. From the information furnished on these maps a general map will be compiled in the Principal Medical Officer's office for transmission to the Sleeping Sickness Bureau.
5. I enclose a copy of a circular prepared by the Principal Medical Officer, which, at Dr. Thompstone's suggestion, is being printed and will be distributed to all officials and European residents. This circular will also be published in the next issue of the Government Gazette.
6. Dr. Thompstone has asked that three hundred copies of the pamphlet "How to avoid infection," which was transmitted under cover of your Lordship's despatch, circular, of the 17th of November last,* should be forwarded to the Pro- tectorate for distribution, more particularly amongst the residents in the riverain provinces.
7. I trust that it will be possible at an early date to submit to your Lordship a full report on the investigations which are now proceeding.
I have, &c.,
G. R. MATTHEWS,
Acting Secretary,
For Acting Governor.
Enclosure in No. 19A.
SLEEPING SICKNESS.
I have to call attention to the risks incurred by travellers in districts where tsetse fly is prevalent, and to the necessity of taking precautions against being bitten.
Two cases of sleeping sickness have occurred among Europeans during the last two years both probably acquired either in Kabba or Bassa-and all persons travelling in the riverain provinces are liable to infection.
Camps should be chosen away from wooded streams, and netting should be used when journeying in canoes, and when sitting down during the day on the march. It is not necessary to have a small mesh-a large coarse net which will admit air freely should be carried and erected at halting places when trekking. Light coloured clothes are a protection, and a fly switch should be carried.
The following are the main points to be noted:-
(1) The disease is practically always transmitted from a sick person to a
healthy one by the bite of a tsetse fly.
(2) The presence of even a single diseased person in a locality infested by
tsetse flies may entail the infection of the whole community.
(3) A tsetse fly is able to retain its power of infection for some days, probably
up to three weeks.
(4) There are no authenticated instances of the transmission of the disease from sick persons to healthy ones in districts where the tsetse fly is not found.
(5) The tsetse fly is nearly always found in the near neighbourhood of fresh water where the vegetation is luxuriant and shade abundant. only found where these conditions exist and the infested belt is a It is
narrow one.
(6) The flies quickly abandon places where, through the clearing of vegeta-
tion, the conditions favoured by them are removed.
(7) The fly and its pupa are sheltered, not by the large trees with smooth unbranched stems, but by the bushes, brushwood, or scrub, and it is
• Not printed.
43
this which must be destroyed when measures are being taken to get rid of them.
(8) The time of the day when the flies are most numerous is from about 8 a.m.
until half an hour before sunset. weather-wind drives them to shelter at once.
They are more active in still one may be seen at a place where in still weather they abound. They On a windy day not are seldom seen at night.
August 18, 1909.
30058
No. 20.
RHODESIA.
S. W. THOMPSTONE, Principal Medical Officer.
MEMORANDUM BY DR. BAGSHAWE.
Sleeping Sickness Bureau, The Royal Society,
Since I wrote the Memorandum* (on Dr. Spillane's report of July 6th, 1909†),
Burlington House, London, W., October 21st, 1909. a draft of which was read at a meeting of Sub-Committee A. of the Entomological Research Committee (September 2nd, 1909), information has reached me which con- cerns the second part of this Memorandum. It is contained in a letter from Dr. Arthur Pearson, Médecin en chef de l'Union Minière du Haut-Katanga. I append an extract :-
26
Railway from the South--I see you quote in the Bulletin that there is a very real danger as soon as the railway reaches 14 degrees south.
66
·
There is scarcely a small streamlet in the neighbourhood of the copper belt which has not been systematically examined, and our fy areas are well known and mapped. (There are none in the copper belt.) The railway from the south will come to the State of Congo (about 11° 40') without passing within less than 40 miles of a palpalis so far as my present information goes. I believe this information to be quite reliable unless the fly is found, as seems almost impossible, on the tributaries of the Zambesi near the watershed. The tributaries of the Congo water system have all been examined by me, and I have drawn the attention of the authorities to the advisability of getting those of the Zambesi also examined.
"
The railway can further come 100 miles to Kambove (10° 26' S.) and 100 west to Ruwe (same latitude), without coming into contact with palpalis unless this fly advances up the rivers.
'Such an advance is being carefully watched for. As I have already said, there is no evidence of such at present.
"My information as to fly is derived either from my own observations or those of medical men who are absolutely reliable.
"With regard to railways from the north which will come in future years, and which must pass through palpalis country, I can say at present nothing."
Dr. Pearson has been in the Katanga for six years, and we may, I think, accept his statements. The conclusion is, not that there is no danger of the conveyance of Glossina palpalis into British territory to the south, but that the risk is less imminent than had appeared and will probably not threaten until Kambove or Ruwe are linked up with railways in Belgian Congo,
October 21st, 1909.
ARTHUR G. BAGSHAWE.
• No. 18.
16:95
↑ No 15.
F 3
1
44