Abstract. Eight cases of anaemia associated with sicklaemia occuring in West African natives are recorded. The difficulties in diagnosis are discussed and the need for a complete haematological investigation is stressed. Toxic conditions as precipitating factors in the production of sickle cell haemolytic crises are listed and the importance of “testing for sickling” in acute diseases is emphasized. It is suggested that liability to thrombosis from impaction of agglutinated sickle cells is of greater importance than the presence or absence of an anaemia and that the term “sickle cell disease” would be therefore preferable to that of “sickle cell anaemia.”