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a difficulty to get mares sent to Bathurst to him. He is fed on English corn and hay, and is kept in a fly-proof building. A book of his service should be kept. I strongly recommend that the Government should buy about twenty suitable mares at £10 or £12 a-piece to put to "Sandiway," and they could, during the early part of pregnancy be used to work for the Board of Health or the Public Works Depart- ment; they would have to be stabled apart from the native stallions.
MEAT INSPECTION.
The method of I have not done much in this matter during my present tour. slaughtering is barbarous, and the methods of handling the carcase are crude. Animals should be stunned before they are bled.
PIG KEEPING IN BATHURST.
I have already reported on this matter, and recommended that sanitary piggeries with proper drainage should be compulsory where pigs are kept. The pigs kept are generally of English stock, but the native does not understand them, and, in consequence, they are not well fed. I have instructed the people individually how to manage these animals.
I heard from a European of a case of strangles, which is a specific equine disease; but from enquiry I do not think it is of common occurrence.
I have not seen or heard anything of the greater epidemics, such as rinderpest, bovine pleuro-pneumonia, or foot-and-mouth disease, &c.
SHOEING.
I raised this question in a former report; but after discussing the subject with His Excellency it was decided to drop the matter, as the ponies go very well unshod, and it would be difficult to get good shoeing done by native labour in Bathurst, and impossible to get shoeing done at all in the Protectorate.
SURGICAL CASES.
Many cases of lameness, &c., and ordinary surgical cases, have been examined and treated, both in Bathurst and the Protectorate.
My thanks are due to Mr. G. H. Sangster, Travelling Commissioner, Kommbo and Fogni Province, Dr. E. Hopkinson, D.S.O., Acting Travelling Commissioner, South Bank Province, Mr. H. F. Sproston, Travelling Commissioner, Upper River Province, Mr. J. K. McCallum, Travelling Commissioner, McCarthy Island Province, for their courtesy and assistance when passing through their districts.
I desire to express my appreciation of the help of the Senior Medical Officer, Dr. T. Hood, and members of the Service placing drugs and instruments at my disposal. I also wish to thank the Colonial Engineer and the officials of the Depart- * ment for their assistance and help on many occasions.
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
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SIR,
Bathurst, Gambia.
No. 37.
I bave, &c.,
ARTHUR N. FOSTER,
Veterinary Officer.
NYASALAND.
COLONEL SIR DAVID BRUCE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received 28 June, 1911.)
Grosvenor Road, S.W., 27th June, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to enclose a memorandum relating to the Royal Society Nyasaland Commission, for favour of transmission to His Excellency the Governor, Nyasaland Protectorate, if thought advisable. Captain Hamerton has been sup- plied with a copy for his guidance.
I have, &c.,
DAVID BRUCE, Colonel,
Army Medical Service.
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Enclosure in No. 37,
ROYAL SOCIETY NYASALAND COMMISSION.
MEMORANDUM by Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., Army Medical Service, Director.
any,
1. The chief object of the Commission is to discover what connection, if exists between the wild game and trypanosome diseases of man and domestic animals.
2. For this work a stationary camp with laboratory and dwelling-huts for the Commission will be necessary.
3. The site of this camp is important, and difficulty may arise in fixing on one. It should be in a healthy situation, and not exposed at any time of the year to the presence of tsetse fly.
4. The camp should also be within easy reach of a fly-area and wild game. For example, in Zululand the laboratory was placed on the top of the Ubombo Mountain, some 1,500 feet above the surrounding country. At the foot of the hill, within two hours' walk, tsetse fly swarmed, and there was also a large number of animals, such as buffalo, wildebeeste, koodoo, &c. When an animal was shot a bottle was filled with its blood, and a native runner went off at once with it to the laboratory. He could reach it within four or five hours, so that the blood was received almost unchanged.
5. This injection of the fresh blood of wild animals into susceptible animals (dogs, rats, goats, &c.) is done in order to find out whether the blood of the wild animals contains harmful parasites or not. The blood of the game contains so few of these parasites that it is usually impossible to find them by microscopical examination alone. Hence the necessity of having the wild animals within a reasonable distance of the laboratory. It may be said that the susceptible laboratory animals (dogs, rats, goats, &c.) might be taken into the fly country and inoculated with blood at the moment the wild animal is shot. The danger of this is that the laboratory animals might be inoculated naturally by the tsetse fly in the game country and so falsify the experiment.
6. It is important that the animals shot for examination should be living in a really unhealthy fly area or district--a district into which it would be impossible to take horses, dogs, or cattle without their succumbing to fly disease.
7.
Another important thing to be made out is, are the tsetse flies in the fly country naturally infected with disease germs? This would be found out by bring- ing large numbers of flies from the fly country and letting them feed on experimental animals. If these animals afterwards showed the disease germs in their blood, it would prove that the flies were infective.
8. As part of the investigation would be to find out what are the important trypanosome and other parasitic diseases of stock, it would appear necessary to be within touch of the settlers and their farms. If an epidemic broke out in any place, a member of the Commission could be detailed to go there and collect material for further examination in the laboratory.
9. Sir Alfred Sharpe thought a site to fulfil these conditions could be found in the vicinity of Zomba, somewhere on the road to the north of the cantonment, and he also suggested that as there was a good road available, a motor might be used for transporting material from the fly country to the laboratory,
Dr. Hearsey, the Principal Medical Officer, on the other hand, thought the best place would be near Dowa Boma or Mvera Mission.
10. The study of the cases of sleeping sickness among the natives is an im- portant part of the work of the Commission, and as these cases occur near the Mvera Mission, it is evident that the Commission, or a part of it, would require to proceed to that district at some time or other.
11. A rough plan* of a camp is attached, and marked A.
Sir Alfred Sharpe thought that the laboratory and houses would be built of sun-dried bricks, with iron roofs. If this is so, then it would be necessary that the laboratory and office at least should be lined with match-boarding, as we found in Uganda it was impossible to work under a bare iron roof. If the laboratory and huts could be thatched they would be cooler.
12. If the roofs are iron, then guttering and tanks to collect rain-water should be supplied. A plentiful supply of clean water is a necessity in a laboratory.
• Not reproduced.
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