Joseph Everett Dutton (1874–1905): Pioneer in Elucidating the Aetiology of West African Trypanosomiasis

Dutton JE . Preliminary note upon a trypanosome occurring in the blood of man. Thompson Yates Laboratories Report 1902; 4: 455–70.

Dutton JE Todd JL . The nature of tick fever in the eastern part of the Congo Free State. BMJ 1905; ii: 1259–60.

Dutton JE . The intermediary host of filaria cypseli (Annett, Dutton, Elliott): The filaria of the African swift cypselus affinis. Thompson Yates and Johnston Laboratories Report 1905; 4: 139–47.

Dutton JE Todd JL Tobey EN . Concerning hemoflagellates of an African fish (Clarias angolensis). J Med Res 1906; 15: 491–5.

Dutton JE Todd JL Hanington JWB . Trypanosome transmission experiments. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1907; 1: 201–29 Dutton JE, Todd JL, Kinghorn A. Cattle trypanosomiasis in the Congo Free State. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1907; 1: 233–74.

Dutton JE Todd JL Tobey EN . Concerning certain parasitic protozoa observed in Africa. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1907; 1: 287–371.

Dutton JE Todd JL Tobey EN . Trypanosomes of the trumpter hornbill (Bycanistes buccinator). J Med Res 1907; 16: 65–9.

Obituary. Dutton Joseph Everett , m.b., ch.b. vict. Lancet 1905; i: 1239–40.

Obituary. Dutton Joseph Everett , m.b., ch.b. vict., d.p.h. BMJ 1905; i: 1020–1, 1072, 1250, 1363.

Obituary. Dutton J. E. Dr. . The Times 1905; 1 May, 6 and 19 May: 10.

Cook GC . Other spirochaetal diseases. In: Cook GC , ed. Manson's Tropical Diseases, 20th edn. London: WB Saunders, 1996: 951–62.

Cook GC . William Osler's fascination with diseases of warm climates. J Med Biog 1995; 3: 20–9.

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Historical Record 1898–1920. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1920: 103.

Dutton JE . Preliminary note upon a trypanosome occurring in the blood of man. Thompson Yates Laboratories Report 1902; 4: 455–70.

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

Williams BI . African trypanosomiasis. In: Cox FEG , ed. The Wellcome Trust Illustrated History of Tropical Diseases. London: Wellcome Trust, 1996: 178–91.

Cook GC . Correspondence from Dr George Carmichael Low to Dr Patrick Manson during the first Ugandan sleeping sickness expedition. Med Biog 1993; 1: 215–29.

Cook G . Sir David Bruce's research on trypanosomes. J Med Biog 1996; 4: 61.

Dutton J . to his family in England: 1 September 1904. Manuscript collection of Josephine Braybrooke.

This demonstration of trypanosomes in an animal reservoir is of particular interest; today only limited evidence exists (in pigs and dogs) of a zoonotic reservoir of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense⁹ .

Winterbottom T . An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; to Which is Added, an Account of the Present State of Medicine Among Them. London: C Whittingham, 1803; vol. 2, pp. 29–31.

This is an early description of the use of this technique in the demonstration of T. brucei gambiense; it remains in use today, enlarged cervical glands (first described by Winterbottom in 1803 ¹⁴) being those most frequently aspirated.

Dutton J . to his family in England: 22 December 1904. Manuscript collection of Josephine Braybrooke.

JED presumably refers to Baron Dhanis – whose anti-slavery campaign was at this time centred on Kasongo. Pakenham T . The Scramble for Africa 1876–1912. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991: 434–51.

JED must mean Tippu Tip, whose son Sefu was one of the last of the great Arab slave traders – whose activities were centred on Zanzibar. Ibid.: 434–51.

The mode of transmission of relapsing fever in Dutton's case remains unclear; it seems highly likely, however, that he contracted the infection while carrying out a postmortem examination on an infected African patient^2,3. African tick-borne relapsing fever is caused by Borrelia spp., and transmitted by soft ticks (genus Ornithodoros). Although the mortality rate in untreated infection is low compared with that for the louse-borne variety – less than 10% – neurological complications are relatively common in the non-immune – although rare in the indigenous population4. The infection is now amenable to tetracycline or penicillin chemotherapy; a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction is a rare complication.

Todd J . to HE Dutton (brother of JED): 28 February 1905. Manuscript collection of Josephine Braybrooke.

Willett J to Francis Moore Dutton (nephew of JED): 30 August 1948. Manuscript collection of Josephine Braybrooke.

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