Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 1.djvu/69

ORIENTAL SORE AND ITS PARASITE. 45 come dropsical and atrophied, and attempts at true cicatrisation had now begun to appear. That was to say, the disease had reached its final stage after lasting nine or ten months.

There were many interesting points in the history, the features, and the affinities of Oriental sore. First, it was protective against itself when it had run its course, the patient obtaining in most instances permanent immunity against the disease. Another characteristic was the uncertainty of the incubation period, which was sometimes short, so much so as to be almost an immediate sequence of infection and sore, in other instances running into many months. A lady missionary from Delhi whom he had recently seen developed Oriental sore in the South of France, five months after she had left the place of infection, and that circumstance, viewed in connection with immunity, was an interesting and important feature. Still another point of interest was that the disease occurred almost invariably on exposed parts of the body—on parts that were not generally covered by clothes—and that would lead to the inference that infection took place by some animal which could readily attack exposed parts. Insects, such as bugs and fleas, were thus ruled out, but mosquitoes and flies, for instance, might be effective carriers, as they were likely to convey it only to exposed places.

The disease, too, was inoculable. He himself had not been successful in inoculation experiments; but there was no doubt about inoculability. Apart from his own experience, that had been abundantly confirmed. Dr. Daniels, who was not likely to fail when care and dexterity in manipulation were required, had, however, made many inoculations with him without success, and he thought he had a good explanation for their failure. They had not succeeded in the experiments which they made upon dogs, rabbits, monkeys, and sheep, because the parasite of the