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No. 46.

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received August 19, 1906.)

India Office, -August 16, 1906. [Printed as No. 234 in [Cd. 3189], November, 1906.]

No. 47.

BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE. THE EARL OF ELGIN to COMMISSIONER SIR A. SHARPE.

(No. 198.)

32960

Downing Street, August 17, 1906. [Printed as No. 235 in [Cd. 3189], November, 1906.]

.11.

No. 48.

GOLD COAST.

ACTING GOVERNOR BRYAN to THE EARL OF ELGIN.

(Received September 5, 1906.)

[Copy of enclosures to Board of Agriculture, September 11, 1906.]

(No. 432.) MY LORD,

Government House, Accra, August 18, 1906.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch, No. 225, of the 8th of June, and to transmit, herewith, a copy of a report on the disease known as "yaws" which I trust will be of service to the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Board of Agriculture.

The notes have been compiled by Dr. J. H. Collier, medical officer, who is stationed at Wa in the Northern Territories.

I have, &c.,

H. BRYAN,

Acting Governor.

Enclosure in No. 48.

»

NOTES ON YAWS IN HORSES.

The disease spoken of as "yaws" (for want of a better name) is a disease that is, as a rule, rather prevalent in this district, as I believe it is in the Northern Terri- tories generally.

All the natives here who have come in contact much with Europeans, speak of the disease as "yaws." The Hausas call it "tungeré "--this same term being applied to syphilitic eruptions--and the Moshis, "wadiké." Evidently, then, the disease is well known, and recognised in all these parts.

Although many hold that yaws is a specific manifestation, and not inoculable in domestic animals, still it seems to me that yaws as found in the horse and yaws in the human subject must be very closely allied, for the appearances and characteristics are identical.

Soon after I arrived here, in October last, I had five cases under observation. In three of these cases the disease was of several weeks' duration, and the animals

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were literally smothered with the yaws. With the exception of small parts of the abdomen and the insides of the thighs, I do not think it would have been possible to measure 1 or 2 inches in any direction without encountering another yaw in some stage of its development, and many of these, more especially about the chest and lower part of the face, had run into large confluent masses, measuring 2 to 4 inches in diameter. The other two cases were brought to me at an earlier stage, and consisted of a few isolated nodules about the front of the chest. In none of the old cases did I find any appreciable rise of temperature, nor was there any pyrexia in one of the two cases just mentioned; but in the other case there was a morning rectal temperature, varying from 102° to 103°, which dropped to 99° on the fourth day of observation.

These small nodules on the skin developed in three or four days into well- marked papules, which gradually increased in size to that of a shilling or larger, taking on a yellow cheesy appearance, and of tenacious consistence. A crust rapidly formed, which soon became dry and of a dark-brown colour; in fact, every appear- ance of a typical yaw as seen in the human subject.

Most of these crusts were removed for medication, but one or two that were left by way of experiment, took, I found, eight to ten days to separate. The disease is attended with very considerable irritation of the skin, for the animals are invari- ably rubbing themselves on every possible occasion, and in all parts of the body, even those parts that were not affected with yaws or did not subsequently develop

them.

The yaws were not sensitive, for medication did not seem to pain or inconveni- ence the animals much. I tried solutions of nitric acid, nitrate of silver, pot. perman- ganas (very strong), and rubbed the parts with cupric sulphate. The cases that came before me were so few that I am not entitled to speak dogmatically, but I was certainly of opinion that the yaw dried up more quickly under the pot. perman- ganas than anything else.

The natives here have great faith in cupric sulphate, and often come to the hospital to beg for it.

All the horses were put on liq, arsenicalis internally. I did not try mercury or pot. iodid.

The three severe cases lasted five or six months, and gradually got better. They have now all left the district. In only one of these was there any marked emaciation. The two cases that came before me at an early stage of the disease were immediately isolated, and the parts protected as much as possible. They were quite fit in three or four weeks whether a mere coincidence and slight attacks, or whether the result of prompt preventive measures I am not justified in saying, but I certainly believe the latter."

None of the cases that have come under my observation have proved fatal, so that I have not been able to make any autopsies.

a

I understand the disease is at times very virulent.

Formerly it was quite prevalent in Wa, but I do not think there has been single case here, at any rate, within the last three or four months.

purchased a horse on my way up here, on a former tour, nearly five years ago. Soon after arriving in Wa it developed this disease, was then quite new to me, and I took no preventive measures. In six or eight weeks the animal was practically covered with yaws. It wasted to a skeleton, and was useless to me the rest of my When I left, about nine months after, it was only then beginning to pick up. I heard afterwards that it bad got quite fit again, but had been left with numerous bald patches. These patches could not have been as extensive as the original yaws, or the animal would have been practically minus hair altogether.

tour.

This "alopecia " is, I believe, a usual sequela of the disease, but evidently the hair follicles in a yaw are not invariably destroyed. One frequently hears of horses being covered with yaws, but I have never yet seen a correspondingly proportionate * alopecia."

Wa, July 24, 1906.

J. H. COLLIER, M.B., Medical Officer,

Black Volta District.

• No. 32.