Report on the measures adopted for the suppression of sleeping sickness in Uganda / by Sir H. Hesketh Bell ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on the measures adopted for the suppression of sleeping sickness in Uganda / by Sir H. Hesketh Bell ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    many of the suiferers as their means permitted them to main- tain, and nursed them with much devotion. Various remedies were tried hut all without avail, and every single patient perished. During- five years the White Fathers maintained an average of nearly a hundred inmates in their refuge, and a pathetic commentary on their work is the fact that their ceme- tery contains nearly hOO graves. 12. The work of the White Fathers among the sick was com- paratively no more than a mere drop in the ocean, and the sulferiug and mortality continued unabated. The natives declined to believe in the agency of the tsetse fly, and the sick, in all stages, being permitted to remain in the infested radius, provided an ever-increasing source of infection for the flies. Millions of tsetses thus became inoculated and proceeded to trans- mit the disease to those who might still be unaftected. Bacterioloyical Stvdies by JAeutenunts Gray and Tulloch uf the Royal Army Medical Corps.—Death of Lieutenant Tulloch. 13. Towards the end of 1904, Lieutenants Gray and Tulloch, of the Hoyal Army Medical Corps, were sent out by the Koyal Society to replace the scientists who had first come out, and during the ensuing year they worked steadily at the bacterio- logical investigation of the disease. Lieutenant Tulloch unfortunately fell a victim to his devotion to duty, and died of sleeping sickness in July, 1905. SjJread of the JJisease into Unyoro and the Nile District. 14. In November, 1904, Mr. Wilson, the Acting Commissioner, reported to the Secretary of State that the disease had made its appearance in Unyoro, on the shores of Lake Albert, and at several places on the bank of the Nile. He believed that the fly would be found all along the banks of the river right up to Bor, and stated that no preventive measures appeared to be discovemble, A few weeks later, the Medical Oflicer in Unyoro reported 300 deaths. Captain Greig, an Officer of the Indian Medical Service, who had been associated with Colonel Bruce, travelled down the Nile, and reported the presence of tsetse flies almost as far as Gondokoro. An'ival of Professor Minchin. 15. In January, 1905, the Eoyal Society, in view of the alarming spread of sleeping sickness towards the Sudan, recom- mended the engagement of the services of an experienced zoologist who would investigate the natural history of the tsetse fly and of otlier biting insects which might also prove to be the means of transmitting the disease. Professor Minchin was selected for this service, and arrived in Uganda in April, 1905. He pursued his researches during eight months and then returned to England. Removal of Laboratory from Entebbe.—Royal Society decided to send out no more Investigators. 10. In March, 1900, Dr. Moffat, tlie Senior Medical Officer, rei)resented to the Commissioner that the location of the labora- lury for the study of sleeping sickness was undesirable in