PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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that the exceptional opportunities which they offer for investigation should be made as widely available as possible.
The Indian Medical Staff has its own laboratories but two of its members have been employed on sleeping-sickness work in Uganda. The medical staff of the Navy has little or no margin for work outside its ordinary duties, although It was found possible to detail one or two of its men for the investigation of Malta fever which was undertaken by the Admiralty, War Office, and Colonial Government jointly. The Royal Army Medical Corps, on the contrary, has some margin, for outside work. At the present time, seven of its members are employed in Uganda-three on work in connexion with syphilis, two at the sleeping. sickness laboratory, and two on work in connexion with the sleeping-sickness segregation camps. Another of its mem- bers is attached to the laboratory at Khartoum, and the last head of the Medical Department of the East Africa Pro- tectorate was an officer of the Corps. When the officers who are now working in Uganda have been withdrawn, it might be possible to arrange that three or four of their fellow-officers should be attached to some of our laboratories in other parts of the tropics.
The Army is much interested in questions of tropical diseases, and some of our foremost investigators, such as Sir D. Bruce, Major R. Ross, Sir W. Leishmann, are, or have been, members of the Royal Army Medical Corps.
The experience gained in this way would be of great practical value in the case of military operations in the tropies and in any case would have the effect of broadening the outlook of men whose duties are often of a very routine nature.
An arrangement of this kind would also be of advantage to the laboratories, as it would enable continuity of work to be maintained and increase the output. The expense should, I think, be borne by Army Funds, but the Colonies might be able to help in some cases by providing quarters and, possibly, passages. It might also be possible to arrange that, in cases where the medical scholarships, recently founded by Mr. Otto Beit, are given for research in Tropical Medicine, some of the holders should be attached to our laboratories. Two of the trustees, Dr. Rose Bradford and Dr. J. K. Fowler, are serving on Medical Committees connected with this Office and would be able to advise us in the matter.
(B.)
Coming now to the institutions or agencies in this country, there are
(a) The London School of Tropical Medicine.-The School has now been in existence some ten years. From small beginnings its work has been expanded so that the annual entry has now risen to some 140 or 150 students, and the staff at present consists of six salaried teachers, whose entire time is devoted to teaching and investigation, and of eleven lecturers, each of whom delivers a course of lectures on his special subject three times a year, besides, in the case of those on the Hospital Staff, attending to the clinical teaching in the wards of the Hospital attached to the School.
The large number (over 1,000) of students-all of them post-graduates-who have passed through the
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School and the fact that the length of the average atten- dance has steadily increased indicate that it meets a want and should, if possible, be expanded.
Although the majority of the students belong to the Public Services a considerable proportion are private students: thus, out of 1,000 students 361 have been private students and 127 students from Missionary Societies, or nearly 50 per cent.
may
be
In addition to teaching, the School prosecutes and encourages research in Tropical Medicine. Special chairs have been established in Helminthology, in Protozoology, and Arthropodology, so that students who desirous of carrying on original investigations may be. instructed in the most recent and advanced methods of research, as well as being brought thoroughly up-to-date in those departments of natural science which have a special bearing on tropical medicine. Moreover, the staff of the school is prepared to continue to give help to workers on tropical subjects who cannot take furlough to England. It is sometimes impossible for a worker abroad, far away from museums and libraries, to determine for himself, for example, the exact zoological position of some insect, worm, or parasite he may be interesting himself in ; may be, to obtain information on some point bearing
or,
on tropical pathology. Applications for assistance or advice in such matters are frequently received by the School and are carefully attended to.
A museum illustrative of tropical pathology and hygiene is gradually being formed, and the collections are arranged in such a manner that a student about to proceed to the tropics can see at a glance and easily study from actual specimens, not only the disease germs themselves, but also the disease transmitters of the particular colony in which he proposes to work.
In addition to teaching and investigation carried on in London, the School, from time to time, has sent experts to various places in the tropics to study special diseases. These expeditions have added materially to our knowledge, but, from lack of funds, they have not been as numerous as they should have been.
The total cost of erecting and establishing the School amounted to £38,000, and in 1903, and again in 1909, it had to be enlarged. The original accommodation was for only 18 students. In 1903, room was provided for 36, and now there is good accommodation for 52, and 60 could be seated. For the special departments for the advanced study of Protozoology and Helminthology the accommoda- tion is most inadequate, but, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Blessig, who contributed a sum of some £1,500 for the enlargement of the School buildings, proper accommoda- tion has now been provided for the study of Arthropodology. The income from fees, mess charges, colonial contributions, &c., amounts annually to about £2,600, and the expenditure to about £3,000, but as the School receives a grant of some £1,300 a year from the Tropical Diseases Research Fund, it manages to pay its way, and in one way and another it has managed to accumulate a small reserve fund of some £4,000.
But this sum is altogether inadequate to meet the growing needs of the School. A certain amount of capital expenditure is required for the purpose of enlarging the school buildings and providing a farm for experimental animals, and additional annual revenue is required for what