PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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to the disease was a most important means to such end. It was proposed that the Bureau should be an international one and that its home, at any rate in the first instance, should be Londen. For reasons into which it is now unnecessary to enter, the French and Italian Governments were unable to accept the proposal, and Lord Elgin, having ascertained that the Soudan Gov- ernment would be willing to contribute a sum of £300 a year to the expenses of the Bureau and that the Royal Society would be willing to provide accommodation for it at Burlington House, approached the Treasury in April, 190S, and obtained a grant not exceeding £900 a year (now increased to £930 a year), which with the Soudanese grant of £300 a year was sufficient to enable a start to be made. The Bureau has been an unqualified success, and although started as a purely British concern it has now become international in character-except in the matter of pecuniary contributions. Its publications are distributed gratis to workers in all parts of the world, and it gives valuable advice to the Colonial Office and to the outside public, e.g., the British South Africa Company, in all matters connected with sleeping sickness. Further funds are urgently required, not only for the purpose of im- proving the salary of the Director, but also of providing him with additional staff so as to enable him to devote time to the consideration of outstanding questions in connexion with the disease, and to do research work on his own account.
Further funds are also required for the purpose of setting on foot an organization of this kind which shall deal not only with sleeping sickness but with all tropical diseases. To do this would confer immense benefit on tropical medicine and would greatly enhance the prestige of this country.
(d) The African Entomological Research Committee.— The names of the members of the Committee are given in Appendix 1.
In view of the close relation which is recognised as existing between certain insects and the spread of disease among man, animals, and economic plants in tropical Africa, Lord Crewe decided in 1909 to appoint a Com- mittee to lurther the study of economic entomology with special reference to Africa. Lord Cromer kindly con- sented to act as Chairman, and the Committee has been in existence for a little less than a year.
The funds at the disposal of the Committee amount to £2,000 a year, made up of certain contributions of which details are given in Appendix II,
A trained entomologist has been sent to the east side of tropical Africa and another to the west for the purpose of stimulating official and other residents to collect and observe noxious insects, and of affording instruction in the use of scientific methods. By this means it is hoped to obtain throughout these territories an organised body of investigators who will communicate all their collections and observations to the Committee. These collections will be classified by a number of British and, in some instances, Continental entomologists, and named specimens will be distributed to such institutions as may require them for purposes of instruction, both at home and in Africa. good deal of material has been already received and classified, and the work of the Committee will be greatly assisted by the three Government entomologists of Southern Nigeria, East Africa, and Uganda Protectorates. The
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Committee is keeping in touch with the work which is being done in Egypt and the Soudan, and in South Africa. The scientific results, including all observations and experiments made by the collectors, will be published from time to time in a bulletin to be issued by the Committee. The first number of the bulletin has just appeared. Arrangements have also been made for the instruction of colonial officials in this country at the Natural History Museum. Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities, the Imperial Department of Agriculture in Ireland, and the London aud Liverpool Schools of Tropical Medicine. considerable addition has recently been made to the entomological staff of the Natural History Museum, where the headquarters of the Committee are established, and this will greatly assist the work of the Committee.
The scope of the Committee, even with its present limitation to tropical Africa, is a very ample one, but, as time goes on,
it will probably include many of our other Colonies.
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There remains yet another possible extension of the work of the Committee, namely to Protozoology and Helminthology. These are big and important departments of tropical medicine which require a more systematic study no less than Entomology. Insects, protozoa, and helminths are at the bottom of most of our troubles in the tropics, and any money spent in their investigation will be amply repaid. There can be little doubt that the Corn- mittee will, in the course of time, be able to profitably spend ten times its present income,
To complete the account of the Scientific Committee, [ should mention two other Committees whose work has an important bearing on those referred to above.
(e) The Colonial Veterinary Committee.-On the 7th of March, 1907, Lord Elgin caused a letter to be addressed to the Board of Agriculture, enclosing a copy of a circular which had been sent to the Crown Colonies and Pro- tectorates with a view to placing veterinary matters in those countries on a better basis, and stating that as a further step in the same direction he desired to appoint a sinall Committee in this country to advise him in veterinary matters. He also stated that it appeared to him that a small Committee composed of two members of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, representing the administrative and scientific sides respectively, and a member of the Colonial Office, would be the most suitable for this purpose.
The Board nominated one of their Assistant Secretaries and their Chief Veterinary Officer to serve on the Committee. The work of the Committee has been confined almost entirely to our Colonies and Pro- tectorates in tropical Africa, and the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Board of Agriculture is exceptionally well fitted to advise us with regard to the animal diseases in those countries, both on account of his high scientific attain. ments and of the great practical experience acquired by him as head of the Transvaal Veterinary Department.
Owing to the difficulty of obtaining veterinary officers who are well qualified for work in tropical Africa, progress has not been rapid, but a certain amount of veterinary research has been done in the Gambia, Northern Nigeria, and Southern Nigeria by competent men temporarily appointed for the purpose, while a veterinary bacteriologist has now been appointed to the Gold Goast and another to the Gambia and Sierra Leone jointly. In East Africa there is a strong veterinary department with a very competent