Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/220

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188
TRYPANOSOMIASIS
[CHAP.

these views by some very significant experiments. G. morsitans fed on animals infected with T. brucei were subsequently fed to two men; the result was negative, though a number of control animals fed simultaneously died. Taute injected himself with 2 c.c. of blood from a trypanosome-infected dog, the trypanosomes being of the Rhodesian type; there was no bad effect. Fourteen days later he injected 90 c.c. of his own blood into susceptible animals; these animals did not become infected—— showing that the human organism has the power to kill this particular trypanosome. Whether Taute is right or wrong in his views, it must be conceded that he has the courage of his opinions.

Atoxyl and antimony, generally so potent against T. gambiense infection, seem to be relatively powerless in the sleeping sickness of Rhodesia.

TRYPANOSOMA CRUZI (SCHIZOTRYPANUM CRUZI)

Chagas has shown that a form of trypanosomiasis, especially common in children, is endemic in parts of the state of Minas Geraes in Brazil, and that it is transmitted to man and the domestic animals by a species of bug, Lamus megistus (at first erroneously supposed to belong to the genus Conorhinus). Allied species and certain other biting insects appear to have the power of transmitting the infection, at all events under experimental conditions.

Symptoms.—— The disease assumes a variety of aspects according to the organs more particularly affected by the parasite, individual susceptibility, and the occurrence of reinfection. It is frequently fatal, and in those who recover is apt to entail conditions, physical and mental, resembling cretinism.

Chagas recognizes acute and chronic types. In the former, shortly (ten or more days) after the bite of the transmitting insect, which is painful, high fever supervenes together with enlargement of the thyroid gland, lymphatic glands (especially the cervical), spleen, and liver, myxœdematous swelling of the face, and transient œdemas in different parts of