24
Provision should be made against entry of mosquitos, by wire gauze windows and doors.
(b.) Native houses.
The floors should be elevated well above surface of ground and beaten hard, so as to be impervious to ground air and damp. There should be windows and doors sufficient to supply the amount of air and light necessary for the number of occupants.
Roof most defective here; square courts hold water owing to absence of drainage.
No rubbish or dirty water, or excreta, should be thrown away near the house, but should be disposed of in the ways mentioned under
Disposal of Refuse."
(G.)—Villages and Towns.
Aggregations of the above unit, the Dwelling.
Construction to secure free current of air. Open spaces.
(H.) Clothing.
So far as the West Africa native is concerned; necessity for cleanliness; and destruction, or disinfection, of garments infected with disease-germs. Adequate protection of chest, especially of infants, in rainy season.
(I.)—Habits and Customs.
1. Health promoted by " moderation in all things."
2. Habit of sleeping without a mosquito net, in connection with Malaria.
3. Custom of suckling 'infants for two or three years, bad for them and for mothers.
Child should be weaned at nine months--(v. Feeding of infants).
4. Custom of dosing infants with "Agbo." Its evils.
5. Custom of concealing the sick.
6. Custom of keeping dead bodies long unburied sometimes for many days. 7. Custom of interment of dead within houses and towns. Its evils.
8. Advantage of avoiding such habits and customs.
(J.)-Recapitulation of all Methods of Prophylaxis against Disease.
HENRY STRACHAN,
Chief Medical Officer.
July, 1901.
39841
(No. 126.) SIR,
No. 5.
FIJI.
GOVERNOR SIR E. IM THURN to MR. LYTTELTON. (Received November 8, 1905.)
Government House, Suva, Fiji, October 8, 1905. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your circular despatch of 28th August,* on the subject of the teaching of the rudiments of hygiene in the schools of tropical Colonies.
2. In the present state of the schools in this Colony, I fear it would be useless to attempt to introduce the scheme recommended in your despatch, but I hope shortly to introduce a better system of education, and will then bear in mind the suggestions contained in your despatch as to the teaching of hygiene.
3. I am informed by the Chief Medical Officer that hygiene has been systematically taught here for ten years to the nurses in training at the Colonial Hospital.
25
4. As regards the native population, I fear it would be difficult effectively to teach them hygiene before they learn English, but, as you are already aware, it is proposed to establish, next year, a high school for natives, and it may therefore, before long, become possible to do something with the natives in the direction indicated in your despatch.
I have, &c.,
40051
(No. 125.)
SIR,
No. 6.
ST. HELENA.
EVERARD IM THURN.
GOVERNOR GALLWEY to MR. LYTTELTON. (Received November 10, 1905.)
The Castle, St. Helena, October 18, 1905.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your circular despatch of the 26th August last* on the subject of the teaching of the rudiments of hygiene in the schools of the tropical Colonies.
2. As an enclosure in your above-named despatch was a précis of despatches which had been received in reply to your predecessor's circular despatch of the 7th October, 1903.† There is, however, no reference in the précis to my despatch, No. 211, of the 20th November, 1903, which was a reply to your predecessor's quoted despatch. In my despatch (paragraph 3) I referred to a suggestion of the Colonial Surgeon's as to the desirability of lectures on the elementary laws of health, illus trated by lantern slides, being given to school teachers and others. This suggestion has since been acted upon and a course of weekly lectures in elementary hygiene has just been concluded.
3. The course extended over a period of two months. The lectures were well attended, most of them being illustrated by lantern slides specially imported for the purpose. It is now intended to hold an examination in the subject for school teachers.
4. I concur in the view held by the Colonial Surgeon that a special hand-book is not necessary for St. Helena. Where instruction is necessary on special points, which are very few, it can be given orally, for the present at any rate. Malaria is non- existent in St. Helena; and, in fact, from a health point of view, the island can hardly be termed a tropical Colony. Further, primary education alone is attempted in the St. Helena schools, and it is to be doubted whether set lessons on hygiene by the teachers would prove to be a very sound method to adopt. The course at present pursued is for the teachers to impress the simple laws of health upon the children as the occasion offers. Orders to this effect have been issued.
5. As the staff of teachers in this Colony is a small one, and changes therein are not frequent, it is not proposed to hold regular courses of lectures at stated periods. The Colonial Surgeon, however, will take such steps as is considered best to maintain the interest of the teachers in the subject of hygiene by means of occasional lectures and examination papers, alternating such with lectures on simple physiology.
I have, &c.,
H. L. GALLWEY, Governor and Commander-in-Chief.
41842
(No. 173.)
SIR,
No. 7.
BARBADOS.
GOVERNOR SIR G. T. CARTER to MR. LYTTELTON.
(Received November 25, 1905.)
Government House, October 27, 1905.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your circular despatch of the
• No. 4.
• No. 4
20998
+
† No. 1.
44883: not printed.
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