Volume 1
On the possibility of the occurrence of trypanosomiasis in India / by W.B. Leishman.
- Leishman, W. B. (William Boog), Sir, 1865-1926.
- Date:
- 1903
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the possibility of the occurrence of trypanosomiasis in India / by W.B. Leishman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![{ loH “.- Q@ritt,s” Cours fir ent ¢ am m\ ey Keprinted from the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, May 30th, 1903. WELLCOME NS LIBRARY Coll.| welTROmec ca! | Pom No. 19Os wd ON THE POSSIBILITY OF THE OCCURRENCE OF -, TRYPANOSOMIASIS IN INDIA. t By Masor W. B. LEISHMAN, M.B., R.AM.C., Professor of Pathology, Royal Army Medical College. [From the Pathological Laboratory, R.A.M. College, Victoria Embankment.] THE recent discovery of trypanosomiasis in man by Dr. Dutton and Dr. Forde,' and the report of further cases by Dr. Manson? naturally lead one to question the possibility of the occurrence of this disease in other parts of the world than those originally reported—viz., the Congo and the Gambia. In the following remarks I hope to show that there is at least some ground for the belief that it may occur in India, and that a species of trypanosoma may be the cause of one of the indefinite varieties of fever occurring in that country, in which the presence of malaria parasites in the blood is not deter- mined or is, at least, only incidentally noted. The case upon which this theory is based belonged to such a class, whose general features I shall briefly describe before going into details with regard to the individual patient. For want of a better name I may speak of them as cases of ‘‘ Dum- dum fever,” because, as far as my experience goes, the patients usually came either from this cantonment or its immediate neighbourhood. This station of Dum-dum lies about seven miles from Calcutta and is notoriously unhealthy, malarial fevers of all types, dysentery, and enteric being rife. It is excessively damp, and, in the rains, is practically a morass from the fact of its lying so low; it is said to be even a few feet below the level of the Hoogley, which flows within a mile or two of the cantonments. I had a short personal acquaintance with this station in 1890, but the present remarks refer to the features of this form of Indian fever as presented by soldiers invalided on account of it from Dum-dum to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, during the past three or four years. The cases were, as a rule, regarded as having been malarial in origin, and presented, on admis- sion to Netley, an extreme degree of cachexia; it was, in ‘OU 22200129890](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33445217_0001_0001.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
