!
326
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
CO
885/26
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Venereal Diseases in the Tropics, Yaws, and Yellow Fever. Papers relating to Medical Entomology, Protozoology, Animal Toxins, Laboratory Methods. etc., in their bearing on tropical medicine and hygiene, cosmopolitan diseases as seen in the tropics, and reports from laboratories in the tropics are also noticed.
(ii) The Sanitation Supplements of the Tropical Diseases Bulletin, published three times a year. These deal with all aspects of applied hygiene and preventive medicine in the tropics. They are freely illustrated, and are concerned with the application of research rather than the researches themselves.
(iii) The Tropical Veterinary Bulletin, published quarterly and now in its tenth volume. This deals with the diseases of domestic animals in the tropics, such as Anaplasmosis, Piroplasmosis and the eradication of ticks, Trypanosomiasis (Surra, Nagana, Dourine, etc.), Coccidiosis, Epizootic Lymphangitis, Rinderpest, Horse Sickness, Contagious Abortion, Undulant Fever, Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia, East Coast Fever, Pernicious Anæmia, Hæmorrhagic Septicemia, Tick Fever, Anthrax, Demodectic Mange, Stag- gers, Fluke Disease, Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Swamp Fever, Tuberculosis, Poisonous Fodder Plants, etc. The Reports of the Agricultural Departments and Veterinary Laboratories are reviewed at length and improvements in methode, for prevention, treatment, and eradication of diseases are brought to notice.
The larger part of each issue of these publications is distributed to the subscribing Governments and the remainder is on sale.
As an occasional publication the Bureau has also issued a brochure on "Vaccination in the Tropics," by Colonel W. G. King, which treats of methods of procedure, etc., and of the preparation and preservation of vaccine in the tropics.
To
4. It will be seen that the Bureau's task is of considerable magnitude. make its survey as nearly world-wide and all-inclusive-as possible the Bureau regu- larly keeps watch on some 400 medical or veterinary periodicals mostly obtained by exchange or purchase, published throughout the world in many languages, and numerous reports. The references thus collected-which in 1922 exceeded 2,000 in the case of man and 250 in that of animals-are distributed for careful reading and Bummarizing to a staff of fifteen Sectional Editors, each of whom has expert and intimate knowledge of the diseases or subjects for which he is responsible and whose duty it is to point out errors when in his belief statements made by the author are not correct, and thus to afford guidance as to the value of the paper summarized. The summaries so prepared by the Sectional Editors are carefully collated at the Bureau before publication. In this way any discovery or development, whether published in an English journal or in a little-accessible foreign periodical, promptly comes under notice, and is communicated, in appropriate detail and with scrupulous accuracy, to all concerned.
5. The value of this survey to the medical, sanitary and veterinary services in the tropics can scarcely be overestimated. The literature of tropical diseases has become so voluminous that such an intelligence service is essential if the full benefits, both economic and hygienic, accruing from the prompt and efficient application of knowledge to the control of diseases in the tropics are to be enjoyed. It is essential also for the avoidance of waste of time and energy arising from unnecessary duplica- tion of work.
6. Important as it is that skilled investigators should be enabled to make themselves acquainted easily and rapidly with the extensive literature of tropical medicine, it is of equally vital importance that the ordinary medical, sanitary and veterinary officers and private practitioners in the tropics should be provided with the means of keeping in touch with the most recent developments of tropical medicine and sanitation. The fact that no other organization is covering the same ground is evidenced by the publications of the Bureau being much in request among foreign workers, of whom 340 (chiefly American and Dutch), are regular subscribers to the Tropical Diseases Bulletin.
7. Apart from its publications the Bureau has built up a valuable Library, now pooled with that of the London School of Tropical Medicine, in which are included, among other selected works, complete or nearly complete files of all the tropical medical journals, some two hundred series in all, and a large number of
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pertinent reports and reprints. This library is open to medical men and others who come to this country from the Dominions, Colonies, and other parts of the Empire.
8. The Staff of the Bureau supply information on the subjects with which it deals to any inquirer, or indicate to him original sources of information, and copies of papers from its large collection of reprints are posted on loan to any part of the world on application. The Bureau also acts in an advisory capacity on matters relating to tropical diseases referred to it by Government Departments.
9. The Bureau is maintained partly by a grant from Imperial Funds and partly by contributions from various Dominions, Colonies and Protectorates. The scale of these contributions has not been materially revised or increased since the foundation of the Bureau in 1912. The average sum received in grants annually since 1912 is £2,810. A subsidiary source of income is derived from sales and advertisements, amounting in the last completed year to £1,100, but this sum cannot be much zugmented because the issue gratis of so many copies naturally reduces the subscrip- tion list. The expenditure in the last financial year amounted to £5,863 17s. 2d. Up to the end of the year 1917-18 the Bureau's income was adequate, but owing to the great rise of costs since the War the four subsequent years have shown a deficit of £1.945, which has been met from savings effected during the War; these savings hove now reached vanishing point, and, with the development of the work, the heavy rice in the expenses of printing, and the necessary increase of salaries and personnel, the Bureau will be unable to continue unless its income from grants is materially augmented. With increased support the Bureau will be enabled not only to main- tain its work but to extend it in beneficent directions.
10. The Bureau is under the control of an Honorary Managing Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, which meets at the Colonial Office under the chairmanship of Sir Herbert Read, and includes representatives of the Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, and the Veterinary Profession. The office staff consists of a Director, Assistant Director (part-time), Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries, and a Despatch Clerk.
11. Details of the revenue and expenditure of the Bureau for the past five financial years are appended. The accounts of the Bureau are audited by His Majesty's Comptroller and Auditor-General and a Statement of Account is presented annually to Parliament.
APPENDIX.
TROPICAL DISEASES BUReau.
Statement of Receipts and Expenditure for each of the five completed financial years from 1917-18.
Receipts.
Contributions Miscellaneous
1st April, 1917, to 31st March, 1918.
£ s. d. 2,250 0 0 547 8 5
Salaries
Publications
Expenditure.
£ 8. d. 1,854 5 8 628 17 3 48 6 1
£2,797 8 5
Library Office
Excess of income over
expenditure
164 5 7
£2,695 14 5
101 14 0
£2,797 8 5
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