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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.

Reference :-

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18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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for your information, last,* I am directed by the Earl of Elgin to transmit to you, for communication to the Committee of the Royal Society which is engaged in the investigation of sleeping sickness,

a copy of a report by Mr. G. W. Webster, Resident in the Nassarawa Province of Northern Nigeria, on investigations he has made into cases of supposed sleeping sickness at a native hospital at Loko, and as to the native treatment of the

disease.

2. The Principal Medical Officer of Northern Nigeria is being instructed to go thoroughly into the matter.

3. In forwarding this report, the Acting High Commissioner adds that the Deputy Principal Medical Officer states that the only known variety of the tsetse fly capable of transmitting the disease has been found on the River Niger near Lokoja.

I am, &c.,

46024

No. 8.

R. L. ANTROBUS.

COLONIAL OFFICE to THE BRITISHI SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY.

Answered by No. 13.]

Downing Street, January 29, 1907.

SIR,

I AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th of December, and to request you to inform the Directors of the British South Africa Company that his Lordship is now considering what steps can be taken to prevent the spread of sleeping sickness, and will be glad to inform the Company in due course as to the action which is contemplated.

I am to express the Secretary of State's regret that an answer to your letter has not been returned at an earlier date.

3678

No. 9.

UGANDA.

I am, &c.,

H. W. JUST.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE COMMISSIONER. [Copy to Commissioner, British Central Africa Protectorate, March 8, 1907. No. 84. L.F.]

(No. 37.) SIR,

Downing Street, February 5, 1907. I HAVE the honour to inform you that the various proposals which you have submitted in your despatch, No. 218, of the 23rd of November, § for dealing with the epidemic of sleeping sickness in Uganda are receiving my earnest consideration, and that I hope to address you on the whole question at an early date.

2. With regard, however, to the use of atoxyl as a curative agent, to which reference is made in the 39th paragraph of your despatch, I have consulted Sir l'. Manson, who states that the reports on the value of the drug in the treatment of try- panosomiasis and his own personal experience of it are so encouraging that he thinks it desirable that the medical officers in the endemic area should have large supplies at their disposal and be required officially to commence the systematic use of the drug amongst natives in all cases suspected to have, or known to have, the trypano- some in the blood.

3. In his opinion some organisation is necessary by which the entire native population, as regards the trypanosome, might be within reach of investigation, so that no case of an infected subject may be overlooked and all may be systematically treated with atoxyl. He suggests that natives could probably be trained to recog- nise the disease and to administer the drug under supervision.

• 41203; not printed.

Enclosure in No. 4.

No. 97 in Miscellaneous No. 178. No. 100 in Miscellaneous No. 178.

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4. I request that you will consider what can be done to give effect to Sir I'. Manson's suggestions.

I have, &c.,

4662

No. 10.

UGANDA.

THE COMMISSIONER to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received February 6, 1907.)

(No. 233.)

MY LORD,

ELGIN.

Government House, Entebbe, Uganda, December 15, 1906. I HAVE the honour to transmit, herewith, a copy of a very able and exhaustive report by Doctor Hodges, the Acting Senior Medical Officer, showing the work done recently by the Sleeping Sickness Extended Investigation, and the conclusions arrived at. Such pains have evidently been taken in the preparation of this Memorandum, and it is so full of valuable information concerning the results of the latest enquiry into the causation and distribution of sleeping sickness in Uganda that I hope your Lordship may feel disposed to order it to be printed.

(No. 38.)

SIR,

I have, &c.,

Enclosure in No. 10.

H. HESKETH BELL,

His Majesty's Commissioner.

Principal Medical Officer's Office, Nairobi, December 22, 1906. I HAVE the honour to forward, for the information of His Excellency the Commissioner, and favour of transmission to the Colonial Office, the first half-yearly report of the Medical Officer in Charge of the Sleeping Sickness Extended Investi- gations, Uganda.

The report is a valuable one, and reflects much credit on Dr. Hodges, the Medical Officer in Charge, for his energy and ability. Although no new discovery of any magnitude regarding sleeping sickness has been disclosed, it shows more definitely than has hitherto been done, the exact distribution of the Glossina palpalis, its relation to the spread of the disease, and indicates lines on which it is possible to control and diminish this fearful scourge.

In the early stage of investigation into sleeping sickness by the Royal Society's Commission under Colonel Bruce, clearing the fly-infested areas and thus destroying their natural habitat was proposed, but at that time the fly range was not defined, and was supposed to be more extensive than these recent investigations have proved to be actually the case. Indeed, it has now been shown that the fly range is very limited. Clearing such areas as are suggested in this report may, therefore, now be considered as practical, and a much less onerous and expensive undertaking than was at first supposed.

Segregation of infected cases had also been proposed from time to time, but the proposal was met with passive resistance by the natives, probably influenced by their chiefs, who may have been apprehensive of a decrease in their personal revenues following on the removal from their holdings of a large number of their tenants.

It is satisfactory to note that in every locality where these investigations were made, the Medical Officer was received with a degree of confidence, which not only speaks well for the tact of the officers employed on these investigations, but is promising for the success of any measures which the Administration may introduce in dealing with the disease.

I consider that segregation and clearing are the most important and practical measures that can be adopted in the present state of our knowledge, but would also strongly advocate an extensive trial being made in treatment by means of atoxyl.

may mention that while visiting the Imperial German Government's Commis- sion on Sleeping Sickness at Sesse, I was shown several cases of sleeping sickness in which a very marked improvement had been effected by the administration of atoxyl, and Professor Koch, under whose able direction the Commission is working,

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