The Meta-Encyclopedia

Tsetse

2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Tsetse. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

tset'se, a South African fly. It is a trifle larger than a house fly. It is brown in color and has four yellow bars across the abdomen. It has somewhat the appearance of a small brown horsefly. It it a terrible pest. Its bite has long been considered fatal to the horse, ox, and dog. Livingstone, the African explorer, lost forty-three oxen in a single trip. As a matter of fact, it has been ascertained that the fly is merely a carrier of disease. Like the malaria-carrying mosquito, it sucks up infection when stinging a diseased animal and introduces the germs when stinging a healthy animal. Its bite has no effect on man, or mules, or on the native wild animals. The difficulty of cultivating fields where oxen and horses cannot be depended upon, and the impossibility of grazing cattle in certain regions, has retarded the settlement of South Africa. There are seven species of the fly. Only one carries the blood parasite. See Fly ; Mosquito

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the native name of Glossina morsitans, a dipterous insect, slightly larger than the house fly, from Africa, ranging from 18°-24° S. latitude. It is brown, with four yellow transverse bars the abdomen, beyond which the on wings project considerably. The head is armed with a proboscis adapted for piercing the skin, and the fly lives by sucking TSETSE FLY blood. At first no effect is perceived, but in a few days after an ox has been bitten, the eyes and nose begin to run, the coat bristles, a swelling appears under the jaw, and sometimes at the navel, emaciation and flaccidity of the muscles ensue, followed by purging, staggering, in some cases madness, and finally death. On dissection the cellular tissue under the skin is found to be injected with air, as if a quantity of soap bubbles were scattered over it. See SLEEPING SICK NESS.