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you send me out two additional medical officers to enable me to carry out the measures outlined in Liverpool School memorandum? Rumours of existence of sleeping sickness on borders of Protectorate appear to be unfounded. this I think it worth while to carry out with least possible delay preventive measures In spite of suggested by memorandum. If you are able to send two medical officers, suggest that one of them should spend two months on the way in Uganda, in order to study sleeping sickness.

24177

No. 58.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received July 5, 1906.)

24177

SIR,

47

No. 59.

COLONIAL OFFICE to THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

I AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to acknowledge the receipt of your letter

Downing Street, July 18, 1906. of the 3rd of July,* and to inform you that he has read it with great interest. In view of the fact that the grant of £500 from the Tropical Diseases Research Fund will be devoted to research for the purpose of discovering a curative or preventive treatment of sleeping sickness, Lord Elgin has decided that the whole excess ex- penditure of £467 8s. 10d. incurred in connexion with Professor Minchin's visit to Uganda shall be charged to Uganda funds.

2. His Lordship is drawing the Commissioner's attention to the views of the Royal Society regarding the importance of maintaining the laboratory at Entebbe.

I am, &c..

R. L. ANTROBUS.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TEREO 885

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

SIR,

[Answered by No. 59.]

Burlington House, London, W., July 3, 1906. In reply to Mr. Antrobus's letter of June 22nd (19466/1906),* I am desired to inform you that the Royal Society proposes to devote the grant of £500 from the Tropical Diseases Research Fund to a detailed research for the purpose of dis- covering some curative or preventive treatment for sleeping sickness.

This subject has received the careful and anxious attention of the Tropical Diseases Committee of the Royal Society. The Committee is of opinion that the following important points in relation to the disease may now be definitely stated:-

The causation and mode of spread of sleeping sickness have been estab- lished. It has been proved that the Trypanosoma gambiense is the cause of the disease; that this parasite is carried from the sick to the healthy by a species of fly-Glossina palpalis; and that the distribution of the disease in Uganda coincides with the range of this fly.

Though it has not been definitely proved that other species of tsetse fly convey the disease, the presumption is that Glossina pallidipes and Glossina morsitans can do so.

As the etiology and pathology of sleeping sickness have now been ascertained, and as the distribution of the fly and of the disease in Uganda is now being further investigated by the six Protectorate medical officers appointed for the purpose, the Tropical Diseases Committee is of opinion that the most urgent question now to be dealt with is the prosecution of therapeutic researches with the view of dis- covering some effective drug capable of being applied to man. Under these cir- cumstances, as the researches in question can best be undertaken in Europe, it is advisable that for the present no further investigators be sent to Uganda. It is earnestly hoped, however, that the Protectorate authorities will maintain the laboratory at Entebbe in commission, so that it may be available for future investi- gation. The apparatus in the laboratory, which has been mainly purchased by the Royal Society, would be at the service of the medical authorities of the Protectorate for any research which they might desire to carry on. It is hardly necessary to lay stress on the great importance of a well-established pathological laboratory at Entebbe for the investigation of Tropical Diseases generally.

The search for a drug capable of exercising a sufficiently detrimental influence upon Trypanosomu gambiense, but yet harmless to man, will, in all probability be tedious and laborious. It will require to be carried out on a sufficiently large scale and will necessarily involve considerable expense. The Tropical Diseases Com- mittee proposes to apply to this investigation the grant of £500 this year from the Tropical Diseases Research Fund. Should it appear probable that further assistance than that afforded by this annual grant will have to be sought from the Colonial Office, a communication on the subject shall be made to you before December next.

I have, &c.,

ARCH. GEIKIE,

Secretary, Royal Society.

• Not printed.

26615

No. 60.

LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

SIR,

(Received July 21, 1906.)

[Answered by Nos. 62 and 68.]

B 10, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool, July 20, 1906. Spread of Sleeping Sickness, Africa.

REFERRING to my letter of the 2nd May,† on the subject of suggestions made by the staff of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for checking the spread of sleeping sickness in Africa, I have to inform you that the matter has again been considered by the Committee of the School.

The School note that it was recently stated in Parliament that the Secretary of State for the Colonies has been advised that the only means of arresting the spread of this disease which would be practicable would be by the discovery of some treatment, curative or preventive, capable of being applied to man.

They still adhere to their views, as expressed in my letter referred to above, and I am requested again to submit to the Secretary of State for the Colonies a sketch of the measures which they believe might usefully be adopted, with a view to combating outbreaks of sleeping sickness in Africa.

Reports have recently appeared in the daily papers pointing to the fact that sleeping sickness is now rapidly advancing towards British Central Africa, and that the natives of Lake Moero have already become infected with this disease.

The School strongly feel that preventive action should be taken without delay. They will be glad to co-operate, as far as possible, in any effort to restrict the spread of the diseases to places as yet uninfected.

1.

Enclosure in No. 60.

I am, &c.,

A. H. MILNE.

THE PREVENTION OF THE Spread of "SLEEPING SICKNESS.” Sleeping sickness," or human trypanosomiasis, has become very wide-

spread in, especially, Equatorial Africa. rapidity, and may be expected to spread to the limit of the distribution of the It is still advancing with alarming tsetse fly, which transmits it.

The areas in which the disease is known to exist are charted on the accompanying map.‡ (§).

• No. 58.

† No. 52.

For particulars of the observations and arguments on

Not reproduced. Memoir XVIII., Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and an article entitled "A means of checking which this paper is based see the spread of 'Sleeping Sickness,"" "Lancet," July 7th, 1906.