PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O, 885
9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Leeward Islands.
Antigua.
The work of tropical hygiene has been as follows:-
1904. Six lectures to clementary teachers on malaria, filariasis, yellow fever, ankylostomiasis, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery. Before these were dealt with, a description of the circulatory and alimentary systems of the body was given. Each disease was dealt with according to the following plan: (a) its geographical distri bution; (b) the life history of the germ or parasite, if any, producing it; (c) the harmful effects on the body; and (d) the preventive measures to be taken, with the reasons for them.
Special attention was given to (d). Average attendance at the lectures, 10. 1905.—The above course was repeated for the students of the Female Training College, Spring Gardens. Eight lessons were given. Average attendance, 11.
1906. Three lectures have been given, using as a guide the syllabus of tropical hygiene, drawn up for inclusion in the Education Code. Three more will complete the course. Average attendance, so far, 12.
St. Kitts.
A course of ambulance lectures has been given, and it is expected that a course of lectures on tropical hygiene will be given in accordance with the syllabus referred to above.
With regard to the other Presidencies nothing has been done at present.
Trinidad.
The instructions in the circular of the 26th August, 1905, have been carried out and lectures in tropical hygiene are given by the Assistant Medical Officer of Health.
Windward Islands.
St. Lucia.
The Inspector of Schools is willing to give every assistance in his power and the medical officers are, on the whole, prepared to fall in with the scheme which has been proposed for giving instruction. The idea which the Administrator has tried to get accepted is that the instruction should be made interesting and easy by being assisted by demonstrations with lantern views, and the necessary text- books are now being obtained. The Administrator considers that there should be instruction of the teachers every year in hygiene and that it should be made a compulsory subject in all the schools assisted by Government. To accomplish this he relies on the medical officers to assist in imparting the small amount of technical instruction for the thorough comprehension of the simple rules of health and pre- vention of avoidable diseases.
St. Vincent.
Certain books have been obtained from England with a view to judging of their suitability for introduction into the primary schools here. The books, when examined, did not appear to meet the wants of the Colony, and a tropical hygiene primer has now been prepared and deals in a very practical way with the diseases which prevail in the Colony, setting out very plainly the contributing causes and the ways and methods by means of which the evils may be combated. The primer will be distributed to all school teachers, with instructions to include the subject of hygiene, as therein set out, in the school curriculum. Later on, when teachers have had time to get accustomed to and digest the novelty of such teaching, the Administrator thinks that it may be possible and expedient to arrange for a course of simple lectures on the subject to be given..
March, 1907.
APPENDIX I. GAMBIA.
SIMPLE RULES TO BE DAILY OBSERVED FOR THE KEEPING OF YOUR HEALTH.
1. Always wash yourself on getting up in the morning-use plenty of soap, keep your clothes clean, especially those next the skin. Keep your mouth and teeth
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clean and thus avoid sore mouth and toothache; keep your feet clean and free from jiggers.
2. See that your mosquito net is large enough to tuck under the bed, and that there are no holes in it. Shake the net in the morning, and roll it up in a bundle on top of itself.
Always put the net down a little before dark and tuck it well in round the bed. Don't let it hang on the floor. If you have no mosquito net you should get one.
3. Don't throw dirty water, urine, or filth near your well. Keep the latrine pan well filled with sand after use. Don't wash clothes near the well, as all fluid Soaks through the ground and makes the water bad, and causes diarrhoea, and pain in the stomach. If the compound is low, try to raise the ground with plenty of
sand.
If you do these things carefully, you will suffer less from fever and colds, and be healthier and stronger in every way.
Bathurst, Gambia,
F. A. BALDWIN,
Acting Senior Medical Officer.
J. CURTIS FRANKLIN,
January 27, 1906.
APPENDIX II.
MAURITIUS.
INSTRUCTION IN SANITATION IN SCHOOLS.
Medical Officer.
REPORT of the Director of the Medical and Health Department.
In order to introduce Sanitation as one of the regular subjects of the curriculum of the Government and Aided Schools, it is necessary to create first a staff of com- petent teachers. This end can be easily and practically attained by giving special instruction to the existing staff of qualified teachers and masters, or to such of these as can be brought together regularly and continuously throughout the whole course of about 14 lectures. At the end of the course, examinations will be held and certificates of competency delivered by the Medical and Health Department. The successful candidates will then be entrusted with the teaching of Sanitation to the pupils of the schools, and the subject will be introduced in the schedule of studies.
Only holders of certificates of competency will be entitled to teach the subject, and special grants will be paid for such of the pupils as will satisfy the conditions of a junior examination to be fixed by the Director of Public Instruction and the Schools Committee.
The Director of the Medical and Health Department will arrange for the delivery of the course of lectures to the teachers, for the examination and for the award of certificates of competency. Further arrangements may also be made by him for the renewal of such courses and examinations from time to time according to the necessities of the case, after consultation with the Director of Public Instruction.
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The first course of lectures will be given at the Institute or the Civil Hospital. As already proposed, each will be given on a Saturday, at about noon, so as to meet best the convenience of the teaching staff of the schools, the Director of Public Instruction directing such measures to be taken as he will deem fit to secure as full and as regular an attendance as possible. Not only should all the town teachers attend, but also those living in the vicinity of the main railway lines, and all others from the districts as could make it convenient to do so. A free railway pass should be granted to teachers residing in the country.
Besides the primers and handbooks already applied for by His Honour the Officer Administering the Government in despatch, No. 1, of January, 1904, it will be necessary to obtain a certain number of large diagrams and wall-maps in Anatomy, Physiology, Bacteriology, and general hygiene included in the course, and of which a list is given in Annexure Ă; and as the teaching of such subjects
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