Show FROM SNAIL FEVER TO MALARIA plain an Aftic african cal D 1 LA AA A A 41 nita 3 f a r i armed with microscopes instead of 16 inch guns naval medical fists are preparing for a new so of african safari on which they will study some of the diseases native to the dark continent the navy medical group will ac company the african expedition be ing sponsored by university of call forma fornia hence will have the duty of providing medical service to the university paleontologists and an who will cover most of africa this year seeking traces of primitive man and apes for the r own purposes the navy doctors will study such native dis eases as african sleeping sickness b tharzia or snail fever plague scrub typhus yellow fever and malaria they also will scrutinize a number of parasites which inhabit human be for instance the par nicular form of hookworm in mozambique zam bique portuguese east africa to pursue their studies the group will have to trap and shoot animals which are the disease carriers among these are the rodent carriers of bubonic plague the zebra deer gazelle elan and possibly hons lions tigers and leopards which are be I 1 eved to be reservoirs of african sleeping sickness most of these animals have not been used in research by american medical scientists before because I 1 fijn llala ii 1 animals which are potential disease carriers are not allowed to be im ported if they should escape captin ity they might introduce an entirely new series of diseases into the united states there are particular regulations for example against the fruit bat a known carrier of malaria which it if once established here would de stroy citrus fruits the fruit bat however Is highly regarded by medical scientists as a good laboratory animal because it is easily raised in captivity it is possible that certain phases of the malaria cycle now entirely under stood could be worked out through study of it |