A report on sleeping sickness in the Volta river district of the Gold Coast Colony with suggestions for dealing with it / by Arthur E. Horn.

  • Horn, Arthur E.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A report on sleeping sickness in the Volta river district of the Gold Coast Colony with suggestions for dealing with it / by Arthur E. Horn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    such conditions as Pediculi capitis, Stomatitis, Otorr- hoea, Ulcers or Sores on the head or face, and other alfections arising from dirt, and I found Trypanosomes in the glands of only two of the numerous children I examined. In children, as in adults, inguinal and femo- ral glands are palpable in almost eveiy case and, although I aspirated a fair number of axillary and femoral glands, I never succeeded in finding Trypano- somes. In examining suspicions cases I made two fresh films of the lymph j nice of palpable glands and spent twenty minutes over the examination of each; when no '^Trypa- nosomes were found, a fresh blood film was examined in the same way. Dried Ij^mphatic and blood films were also made, stained by Leishinan’s modification of Roman- owski’s method and examined at leisure. It is perhaps worth noting that the living and moving Tjypanosomes m a fresh film are very much more easily discovered than those stained and fixed in a dried film; the moving cur- rents of lymph or serum, when followed up, frequently discover an actively moving Trypanosome. Although cervical glandular enlargement is certain- ly a frequent indication of Sleeping Sickness, I have found very suspicious cases of the disease in which the glands were practically impalpable or o]dy aspirated with difficulty, and in whom no 'Prypanosomes could be demonstrated in either the lymph-juice or Idood. No lumbar puncturers were performed. In each of these cases there was debility, more or less loss of flesh, some tremor and lethargy; they were regarded b}- their friends as suffering from Sleeping Sickness. I have a list of those patients examined who, it appeared to me for any reason, might possibly be infected although there were not sufficient grounds for regarding them as suspicious. I could not depend on Auto-agglutination which in some cases occurred, but was absent in others ; while it ap- j)ears to point to some pathological state of the blood it is probably not pathognomonic of Trypanosomiasis.
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