Correspondence from Dr George Carmichael Low to Dr Patrick Manson during the First Ugandan Sleeping Sickness Expedition

Cook GC . From the Greenwich Hulks to Old St Pancras: A History of Tropical Disease in London. London: Athlone Press, 1992:338.

Low GC . A recent observation on filaria nocturna in Culex: Probable mode of infection in man. BMJ 1900;i:1456–7.

Manson P. Experimental proof of the mosquito-malaria theory. BMJ 1900; ii:949–51.

Forde RM . Some clinical notes on a European patient in whose blood a Trypanosoma was observed. J Trop Med 1902; 5:261–3.

Dutton JE . Preliminary note upon a trypanosome occurring in the blood of man. Thompson Yates Lab Report 1902; 4:455–67. BMJ 1902;i:42.

Manson-Bahr P. History of the School of Tropical Medicine in London 1899–1949. London: H K Lewis, 1956:256. Singer C, Underwood EA. A Short History of Medicine. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962:481–7.

Dutton JE Todd JL Manson P. Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Manson P Mott FW . African lethargy, or the sleeping sickness. Trans Path Soc Lond 1900; 51:99–117.

Mackenzie S. On a case of ‘Negro-lethargy’, or ‘the sleeping sickness’ of Africa. Clinical Society's Transactions 1890; 24:1–17.

Mackenzie S. A case of Negro lethargy. Trans Path Soc Lond 1900; 51:118–23.

Hodges ADP . Report on Sleeping Sickness, 1902:1–8. See also: Langlands BW. The sleeping sickness in Uganda 1900–1920: a study in historical geography. Occasional paper no. 1. Dept of Geography, Makerere University College, 1967:1–49.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXIII, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Manson had purchased a house at Chalfont St Giles – as a weekend retreat – in 1897 following his appointment as Medical Adviser to the Colonial Office.

Manson's London home from 1890 to 1914 was 21 Queen Anne Street.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXIV, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

It seems possible that this was the work referred to by Low in his letter to Manson dated 10 Sept 1902 (Document XXXVIIa). If this is the case, it seems likely that it influenced Castellani in his later conclusion that a streptococcus was the aetiological agent responsible for sleeping sickness.

Later Sir James Michelli (1853–1935); Secretary of the Seamen's Hospital Society.

Dr Charles Wilberforce Daniels (1862–1927), who later became Superintendent of the LSTM and a physician to the Albert Dock Hospital.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXV, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Moffat R U Dr (1866–1947) was the Principal Medical Officer for Uganda; he was the grandson of the South African missionary Robert Moffat (1795–1883) at whose home Dr David Livingstone stayed during his first and second African expeditions, and whose daughter Mary he married in 1844. [Dictionary of National Biography, 1893; 33:384–96].

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXVI, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXVII, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXVIIa, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

This is a most interesting comment in the light of the later claim by Castellani that a streptococcus was the aetiological agent responsible for sleeping sickness. The work referred to is presumably that carried out in Angola, and described in a report which concluded that the meningoencephalitis of sleeping sickness has a microbiological basis and that a diplo-streptococcus is responsible: Doença do Somno. Ministerio da Marinha e Ultramar: Relatorios enviadas ao ministerio da marinha pela missão scientifica nomeada por portaria de 21 de fevereiro de 1901. Lisboa: Imprensa de Libanio da Silva, 1901:5–40.

The British Medical Association's Annual Meeting which was held in 1902 at Manchester.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXVIII, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Cook Albert R Dr (later Sir) (1870–1951) – Superintendent of the Church Missionary Society's Hospital at Mengo, Kampala. See: Cook AR. Uganda Memories. Kampala: Uganda Society, 1945. O'Brien B. That Good Physician: Cook of Uganda. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1962:264. Foster WD. The Church Missionary Society and Modern Medicine in Uganda: The life of Sir Albert Cook, KCMG, 1870–1951. East Sussex, England: WD Foster, 1978:234.

Low GC Manson P. Document XXXIX, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr A D P Hodges was the Medical Officer at Busoga, Uganda, who wrote a short Report on Sleeping Sickness in 1902 (see ref 11); he recorded marked differences in the frequency of Filaria perstans in different localities.

This was subsequently shown to be a midge of the genus Culicoides – which is often found in rotting stems of old banana plants.

Low GC Manson P. Document XL, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr C A Wiggins was Medical Officer at Kisumu, Uganda. He later wrote “Early days in British East Africa and Uganda” (see ref 52).

Low presumably intended this to be November.

Boyd J. Sleeping sickness: The Castellani-Bruce controversy. Notes and Records of the Roy Soc Lond 1973; 28:93–110.

Castellani A. On the discovery of a species of trypanosoma in the cerebro-spinal fluid of cases of sleeping sickness. Proc R Soc Lond 1903; 71:501–8. Castellani A. Reports of the Sleeping Sickness Commission. Roy Soc London: Harrison & Sons, 1903 (no. 1):3–10.

Moffat RU . The Times 1908 5 October:6. Manson-Bahr P. History of the School of Tropical Medicine in London 1899–1949. London: H K Lewis, 1956:255.

Castellani A Manson P. Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Singer C Underwood EA . A Short History of Medicine. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962:481–7.

Livingstone D. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. London: John Murray 1857. Livingstone D. Arsenic as a remedy for the tsetse bite. BMJ 1858;i:360–l.

Bruce D. Preliminary Report on the Tsetse Fly Disease or Nagana, in Zululand. Durban: Bennett and Davis, 1895.

Manson-Bahr P. History of the School of Tropical Medicine in London 1899–1949. London: H K Lewis, 1956:255–6.

Castellani A. Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;8 July:18.

Castellani A. Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;21 July:2.

Baker CJ . Sleeping sickness. BMJ 1903;30 May. Baker CJ. Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;11 July:11.

Baker CJ . Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;30 July:11.

Nabarro D. Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;23 July:18 (early edition).

Nabarro D. Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;20 August:7.

Lankester ER . Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;13 July:5.

Sambon LW . Sleeping Sickness. The Times 1908;3 August:16. Dr L W Sambon (1865–1931) was appointed parasitologist to the LSTM in 1902; he had taken part in the Roman Campagna expedition in 1900 which clinched the mosquito–man component in the life-cycle of Plasmodium sp.

Kirk J. Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;17 August:8.

Moffat RU . Sleeping sickness. The Times 1908;5 October:6.

Wiggins CA . Early days in British East Africa and Uganda. East Afr Med J 1960; 37:699–708.

Sambon LW . Sleeping sickness in the light of recent knowledge. J Trop Med 1903; 6:201–9.

Cook JH . The history of sleeping sickness in the Ugandan Protectorate. St Thomas's Hospital Gazette 1925; 30:228–47.

Langlands BW . The sleeping sickness in Uganda 1900–1920: a study in historical geography. Occasional paper no. 1. Dept of Geography, Makerere University College, 1967:1–49.

Lyons M. The Colonial Disease: a Social History of Sleeping Sickness in Northern Zaire, 1900–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992:335.

Low GC Manson P. Document XLI, Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Moffat RU Manson P. Manuscript Collection, Library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.