Collected papers on trypanosomiasis / by Sir David Bruce and others.

  • David Bruce
Date:
[1909-1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Collected papers on trypanosomiasis / by Sir David Bruce and others. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/268 (page 419)
    [.Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. Yol. 82] The Development of Trypanosomes in Tsetse Flies. By Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B., E.R.S., Army Medical Service; Captains A. E. Hamerton, D.S.O., and H. R Bateman, Royal Army Medical Corps ; and Captain F. P. Mackie, Indian Medical Service. (Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society, 1908-10.) (Received April 18,—Read May 5, 1910.) In the ‘Proceedings’ of the Royal Society (B, vol. 81, 1909) a paper was published describing a single experiment illustrating the development of Trypanosoma gambiense in Glossina palpalis. This experiment was carried out at Mpumu, Uganda, near Lake Victoria, in the spring of 1909. Since that date many experiments, on the same lines, have been made, not only with Trypanosoma gambiense but also with Trypanosoma dimorphon, Trypano¬ soma nanum, and Trypanosoma vivax* It is proposed to describe these further experiments in this paper. It will be remembered that Kleine, in German East Africa, at the end of 1908, made the discovery that Glossina palpalis could convey Trypanosoma brucei for some 50 days after the fly had fed on an infected animal. Following Kleine’s lead, our experiments were carried out, at first with Lake-shore flies, afterwards with flies bred in the laboratory. A. The Development of Trypanosoma gambiense in Glossina palpalis caught on the Lake-shore. These experiments were carried out with ordinary wild tsetse flies caught on the Lake-shore, and therefore open to the doubt that some of them may have been naturally infected when they were captured. As there is some evidence that one fly in 400 or 500 of the wild Lake-shore flies is found to be naturally infected, it is evident that these previously infected flies may lead into error. It will be seen later that this risk is not run when flies bred in the laboratory are used. The flies when brought up from the Lake-shore were kept in small boxes, with mosquito-netting sides, and placed over dishes containing water, to imitate, as far as possible, their natural conditions. It may be remarked here that these tsetse flies are so numerous on the shores of Victoria ISTyanza, and the supply so unending, that the fly-boys brought up some 500 every day, and these usually caught at only one or two spots. * These names may require to be changed, when the trypanosomes affecting domestic animals in Uganda come to be described. b