Volume 2
Reports of the Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society.
- Royal Society (Great Britain). Sleeping Sickness Commission
- Date:
- 1903-19
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Reports of the Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![THE DISTRIBUTION OF SLEEPING SICKNESS, FILARIA PERSTANS, &c., IN EAST EQUATORIAL AFRICA. By CUTHBERT CHRISTY, M.B. and CM. (Edin.). [Preliminary Report, dated Entebbe, Uganda, October 31, 1902.— Received December 5, 1902.*] (With 3 Maps.) In studying the Map of the Distribution of Sleeping Sickness, it will be seen at a glance that the disease is connected in some way with the great lake or its waters. In no case has the infection spread far inland, 30 or 40 miles being its limit. It shows no tendency to spread along the Nile source or to other lakes or rivers; 30 or 40 miles, in fact, is beyond the limit. My observations lead me to believe that most cases to be found further than 10 or 15 miles from the lake are cases which have become infected near the shores of the lake. The nearer one approaches the shores of the lake the more prevalent is the disease. Many of the villages by the lake have lost two-thirds of their inhabitants. All the islands in the area are similarly aflfected. In Buvuma, which I have just recently visited, fully two-thirds of the popiUation have died off, and, at least, half of those now left have the disease; all say, quite cheerfully, that they will get it in time, each day they expect to have the premonitary headache. In this island the mortality has been ranch aggravated by famine, firstly, the result of drought, and secondly, from dearth of labour, the result of the mortality. The whole island is now almost entirely out of cultiva- tion, except where a few bananas and sweet potatoes are grown by the water's edge. By a cruel irony, one of the most conspicuous * This more or less iaformal and preliminary report was, as the date shows, written at an early stage of the labours of the Commission. It has been judged desirable to publish it; but Dr. Christy's full report is printed as No. 6 of this series. a 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24750530_0002_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
