CO885-(18-19) — Page 17

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

mmmmm C.O.885

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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out all we could about how they were caught and taking every little care we could to prevent people catching them, they have gradually got less and less till they are now no longer much thought of, although no cure was ever found.

59. It is our hope that the same may happen in the case of sleeping sickness, even though a cure may not be found. For though we all know that it cannot be made to disappear all at once, yet the fewer sick there are, and the fewer bivu there are at the places where people come together, the fewer people will get infected, till at last only a few siek will be found here and there, and these few will be easily taken care of and kept from being bitten by bivu which would carry the infection to others.

60. And now please mark that I do not say that these two things which I have recommended to you are all that can be done nor that they will prove sufficient everywhere, but they are two very important things which you can do in great part for yourselves, and I believe that, if you will help us, they can be carried out in Uganda and other places sufficiently to be the means of saving many people.

61. We know that there are places, especially in Busoga and on the islands, where the bivu travel further froni the water, and perhaps more clearing will be necessary; and that there are also places where there are already so many sick that more help will be required there than elsewhere. We must try to do the best we can for every place. Whatever else we find can be done we must try to do it, and we must still hope for a cure. But, even if a cure were found, it would still be our duty to do all we can to prevent so terrible a disease.

62. There is one piece of advice which I have still to give you, which is really very important, although it may have seemed to you only a little thing. It is that you should all learn to know with certainty this bivu which carries sleeping sickness; for sometimes, when we bave asked Baganda to bring us these flics, some of them have brought other flies which bite but are not the real bivu, though perhaps in some parts they have the same name; and sometimes we have been told that bivu are found at certain places and, when we have visited these places, we have found only some other sort of fly which bites people. The bivu are found only at places where there is plenty of shade at the waterside, and never very far from water, while many other biting flies are found nearly everywhere. So it is very necessary that you should know this kivu well, for, if you do not, you will never know whether it is really present in any place or not, nor will you know where to make your clearings nor whether those clearings are driving it away or not, nor will you be able to avoid its bite.

63. We shall therefore make arrangements so that anyone who wishes can have specimens of the real bivu to see.

64. I do not speak at random when I say that we cannot easily help people who will not help themselves, for one of our great difficulties has been with the people themselves. We have sometimes said to people in Kyagwe and elsewhere on the lake shore "you are living in a very bad place where there are many bivu and many sick with sleeping sickness, and if you remain as you are you will surely die of it in the end, you and all your family; but if you will move your house a little way back and clear a wide track to the water where you have to visit it, you will be in much less danger." Or we have said to others, "You are living in thiek jungle with the water close by on two sides, the bivu are many and sleeping sickness is here (or will soon come). If it is too much for you to clear this jungle so as to drive away the bivu, you

should move your houses a little way away to a better place and clear a road to the shore where you get your water, for otherwise you will all certainly get the disease and die." These people have sometimes replied, "Our fathers lived here and died here and we do not wish to move. If we must die, we must die." Now I think anyone of you who read this may say to such people, "When your forefathers lived here sleeping sickness was unknown and the bivu were harmless. If they had known what we know now they would never have been so foolish as to stay in such a place and do nothing to protect themselves." And you might also say, with truth, You people who speak and act thus are selfish people and you are thinking only of yourselves which no one has the right to do. What of your children whom you are exposing to death and who are not old enough to understand their danger or to avoid it? And what of your fellow-countrymen and neighbours? For many of them you will increase the danger of death, because, if you fall sick, you will be ill ag time, and, living in such a place, you will infect many bivu which may carry

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the disease to any of your neighbours and to anyone who visits or passes near to your shamba, while you yourself, when you go about to the markets and other places, . will infect the bivu wherever you go.”

65. So you see it is the plain duty of everyone to try to avoid sleeping sickness for the sake of others as well as for himself, and that those who do not try to avoid it are a danger to the rest of the community.

66. Let everyone, therefore, try all he can to do his plain duty in this matter, and to help other people to do theirs.

August 31, 1906.

AUBREY D. P. HODGES,

Medical Officer in Charge, Sleeping Sickness Extended Investigation.

I gladly accede to Dr. Hodges's request to add a few words to back

in case it is issued.

•

August 31, 1906.

For translation into Luganda :-

the appeal up

ALBERT R. Cook.

I have read the advice that our friend Dr. Hodges has given the Baganda about sleeping sickness and I want to tell you that I think his words are very wise, and that, if the Baganda chiefs and people follow his advice, this terrible disease will certainly become much less, and in many places entirely die away.

You Baganda have a proverb, "Lubale mbera, ngotadeko nembiro"; now God has put it into the heart of our friend to give you sound advice, and it is your part to carry out his instructions with great diligence.

APPENDIX E.

ALBERT R. Cook,

Namirembe.

SLEEPING SICKNESS IN ENTEBBE PENINSULA AND ITS RELATION TO THE SPREAD OF THE EPIDEMIC INLAND THROUGH IMPORTED LABOUR.

It was not my intention, at this early stage of the investigations, to discuss at length any subject outside a general review of the situation as a whole and the prospects of dealing with it.

The question has been recently revived, however, not only of the advisability of relinquishing Entebbe as the port and capital of the Protectorate, but even of the necessity of abandoning it altogether, on account of the supposed danger to those natives who are either employed in the township as laborers or are otherwise attracted to its neighbourhood, of acquiring the infection of sleeping sickness, and so spreading the epidemic inland.

The question is of such great and immediate importance to the Uganda Protec- torate that I feel there should be no delay in placing before you all the facts bear- ing on it which I have been able to collect, and my deductions therefrom.

In May of this year two of the medical officers, Doctors van Someren and Uffman, were specially employed in making a house-to-house investigation on Entebbe Peninsula, in order to collect all possible evidence as to the existing situa tion with regard to the epidemic and the fly distribution. They were instructed to enquire into the position and extent of fly-arcas and into the position, in relation to these, of villages, dwellings, and all places of traffic and resort; into the number

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