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PUBLIC

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of cases of infection among them. These cases would be segregated and treated in the sleeping sickness camps. The Administration can then decide either to throw open the area to communication again from within, or to allow those who are free from infection to proceed out of the area and settle in clean country, but before deciding on either course, three points must be made quite certain of, viz., (1) there must have been during this period no communication with the fly, and the regula tions enforcing this measure have been rigidly carried out; (2) the medical examina- tion throughout the period must have been systematically and skilfully performed; (3) the incidence of the disease must have ceased. Before throwing open the area there can be no objection to those villages situated on or close to the border, and far removed from any source of infection, moving over the border into clean country as soon as the medical officer is satisfied that the village is free from suspects. The treatment likely to give the best results is atoxyl combined with tartar emetic, 5 or 75 gram of the former once a week, and 10 c.c.m. of the latter intravenously twice a week. Treatment should be maintained for ten to twelve weeks, and after- wards the cases examined once a month. The success of these measures depends, of course, entirely on the manner in which they are carried out; the disease has been discovered in its infancy, when the infection is in all probability very small, so that the measures, if properly carried out, should end in complete success, and I feel fully convinced that in two years' time, if not eradicated from North-Eastern Rhodesia, sleeping sickness will cease to be a menace to, or even interfere with to any extent, its industrial welfare.

In regard to North-Western Rhodesia, the extension of the railway to its ultimate destination is a feature involving serious consideration on the part of the Administration and its medical officers. This danger is by no means limited to the actual construction of the line, but the ultimate facility of communication with parts of the Congo Free State where the disease and its fly may be encountered may involve this country and parts of Southern Rhodesia in the most serious difficulties. Cases of sleeping sickness may be imported into North-Western Rhodesia, which has been shown to have occurred already, or natives from Rhodesia may contract the disease in the Congo before returning to their homes, and cases of this kind will occur in any case in spite of regulations and precautions to stop it, but, in the absence of the fly to spread the disease, do not necessarily involve the country in any real difficulties. The worst event that could befall the Administration of North-Western Rhodesia would be the importation of the fly from the Congo basin to that of the Zambesi. At the present time the fly has not been found anywhere in the Zambesi basin, but the habitat is not unfavourable, and it is by no means certain that it did not exist there some years ago (1864). It is also free from the watershed between the Congo and Zambesi basins forming the northern boundary of North-Western Rhodesia, but it would be quite an easy matter with railway communication to convey the fly from one basin to the other. Tsetse flies have been conveyed from one place to another on the Uganda Railway, and this fact must be constantly borne in mind. An example of this kind has already occurred in the extension of the fly from the Congo basin to that of the Nile causing the epidemic which has been raging in Uganda since 1903. The northern half of North-Eastern Rhodesia is occupied by the Congo basin, which accounts for the disease and the fly appearing there; the whole of North-Western Rhodesia is occupied by the Zambesi basin,separated from the Congo basin by the watershed on its northern border which the railway is to pierce, and if the free communication established by the railway is to be the means of conveying the fly from one basin to the other, then the condition of things now existing in North-Eastern Rhodesia will be established in North-Western Rhodesia, involving that country and the whole of the Zambesi valley in an epidemic of the worst possible kind, completely shutting off the north from the south. The railway may not actually enter the sleeping sickness parts of the Congo Free State, but in serving the Katanga copper district must lie adjacent to them, and its influence will be felt for miles in all directions, which will result in drawing all sorts and conditions from the sleeping sickness areas of the Congo into direct communication with Rhodesia. Thus may arise as a result of railway communication a condition of things to which I would strongly recommend your Directors to give their serious consideration, and a danger which should be represented to the Administration of North-Western Rhodesia as one demanding its fullest attention.

J. C. SPILLANE, M.B.

July 5th, 1909.

27220

SIR,

35.

No. 16.

BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE.

SLEEPING SICKNESS BUREAU to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 14 August, 1909.)

The Royal Society, Burlington House,

London, W., August 13th, 1909.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the report* by Dr. R. U. Moffat, C.M.G., on the suspected outbreak of sleeping sickness in N'gamiland, with covering letters.

Dr. Moffat, after a careful review of the evidence for and against the disease in question being sleeping sickness, comes to the conclusion that, though it is possible that it may be sleeping sickness or some allied trypanosome infection, the character and nature of the evidence render it extremely unlikely.

Dr

I think, however, that the matter should be considered as sub judice. Moffat, who had a large experience of sleeping sickness in Uganda, writes:

I must confess that the realistic account given by some witnesses vividly recalled the exact conditions so often seen in cases of sleeping sickness."

After examining the physical features of the country, he says:-" The vicinity

of the streams would form an excellent habitat for Glossina more especially the species palpalis." He captured two specimens of another species.

The name Gotsello is a very suggestive one, meaning, as it does, drowsiness, when it is remembered that the native word for sleeping sickness in Uganda is Mongota, which has exactly the same significance.

These

In Part VIII. of the report Dr. Moffat makes certain suggestions. appear to me to be very reasonable. Every effort should be made to carry them out in their entirety. The collecting of biting flies is very important as it is quite possible that Glossina palpalis may occur in that region, for it was known to exist in 1864 on the Zambesi. It should be remembered that this species is most common in the rainy season, and becomes so scarce as to be found with difficulty, if at all, in prolonged drought. hope the authorities will be able to carry into effect also the "thorough investigation "recommended by Dr. Moffat, as it is of much import- ance that the nature of Gotsello should be cleared up.

There is fortunately no likelihood of the disease spreading, even if it is a form of trypanosomiasis, for the tsetse flies are confined to a comparatively small area.

A proof of the account of Dr. Moffat's report, which I propose to insert in the next Bulletin of the Bureau, is enclosed.

27302

(No. 187.)

MY LORD,

I have, &c.,

ARTHUR G. BAGSHAWE,

Director of Bureau.

No. 17.

NYASALAND.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 14 August, 1909.)

Government House,

Zomba, Nyasaland Protectorate, 3rd July, 1909.

I HAVE the honour to transmit, for your Lordship's information, a copy of a report submitted by the Resident of the North Nyasa District, regarding the working of the Sleeping Sickness Rules in force in this Protectorate.

I have, &c.,

ALFRED SHARPE,

Governor.

Enclosure in No. 13.

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