Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
The main theme of this series of papers will be the power of the three wellknown members of the brucei group of trypanosomes, T. brucei, T. rhodesiense and T. gambiense, to infect man. Inextricably involved with this problem are two others, both of practical importance: (1) Can the African big game serve as a reservoir for human trypanosomiasis? and (2) What are the affinities existing among these three trypanosomes? This may appear to be an inversion of the real order of importance, but a study of the literature on the brucei group, past and recent, reveals that infectivity to man dominates all other considerations.