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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

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19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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MINUTES.

PRESENT:

Sir West Ridgeway (in the Chair).

Sir T. Barlow.

Sir T. Holderness.

Sir C. Lucas.

Sir P. Manson.

Sir R. Moor.

Dr. Rose Bradford.

Surgeon-General A. M. Branfoot.

Mr. Read.

Mr. Keith (Secretary).

1. The minutes of the meetings of the Advisory Committee were approved. 2. The reports of the work done in the last six months by the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical Medicine were read with interest.

3. The report of the work done by the research student of medical entomology was read.

4. Note was taken of the letter from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on the subject of alterations in the course of instruction at that School.

5. The reports of the work done in the laboratories were read. Exception was taken to the reply from the Governor of British Guiana on the subject of the work done at that laboratory, and was suggested that official notice should be taken of the terms of the Governor's reply and of Dr. Wise's letter as showing a misapprehension of the purpose of the Secretary of State's circular despatch of the 23rd of December, 1907. It was agreed, however, on the proposal of Sir Charles Lucas, that Sir Charles should write privately to the Governor, calling his atten- tion to the fact that it was not the desire of the Advisory Committee in any way to interfere with the work done by Dr. Wise, or to hamper original research by him: but that they were anxious to afford him such assistance as could properly be given by a body which contained several eminent representatives of scientific. research. It was also agreed that the reply from British Guiana should not be published in the annual report of the Advisory Committee.

Sir Charles Lucas called attention to certain expressions in the report from the British East Africa Protectorate with regard to experiments on dogs, and he reminded the Advisory Committee that there might be difficulty in inducing the Secretary of State to permit the publication of this report, as he might thereby bé involved in responsibility for permitting such experiments to continue. It was sug- gested that the wording of the report might be altered so as to obviate the difficul ties feared by Sir Charles Lucas. Sir Charles Lucas argued that this was open to objection, and that it was probably better to print the report as it stood, and to run the risk of hostile criticism, and that it would be necessary for him, in sub- mitting the report to the Secretary of State, to call attention to the possibility of such criticism. Sir West Ridgeway was strongly of opinion that the Committee should not yield to prejudice in this matter, and the same view was shared by the scientific members of the Committee. In this connection some discussion took place as to the possibility of finding some other method of publication for the scientific reports of the laboratories of the Schools. It was suggested that they might be published as extra numbers of the "Journal of Hygiene," and stress was laid by Dr. Rose Bradford on the fact that, from a scientific point of view, it was more convenient that such publications should be printed in the ordinary journals used by scientific workers, and not in Blue Books which were sure to be overlooked. Sir West Ridgeway was anxious lest the omission of the scientific reports would diminish the value of the annual report of the Board, by which its services were made known to the Colonial Governments contributing to the fund. Sir Charles Lucas proposed, and it was agreed, that the question should be allowed to stand over for the present. At the same time he intimated that he trusted that in the future the Sleeping Sickness Bureau would develop into a General Bureau for Tropical Diseases, when the publication of the scientific reports might be taken over by that Bureau.

6. It was agreed that the despatch from the Governor of the East Africa Protectorate with regard to the half-yearly report of the Bacteriologist should be referred to Dr. Rose Bradford for a report.

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7. The letter from Professor Ross on the subject of the reports regarding malaria, published by the Advisory Committee in their annual report for 1907, was carefully considered.

Mr. Read pointed out that in several respects Professor Ross's letter showed ignorance of the circumstances under which medical officers worked; for example, in Northern Nigeria there was an area of some three hundred thousand square miles and a population of ten millions with only forty or fifty medical officers, and the statistics desired by l'rofessor Ross as to school children could not be supplied, for the simple reason that there were no Government schools, and so forth. Or again, in the case of Barbados, it was admitted that no adequate steps were taken to deal with malaria, but the people of Barbados were not subject to the control of the Colonial Office. It was also pointed out that Lord Elgin had declared himself opposed to pressing unduly Colonial Governments for statistics in this matter. On the other hand, Sir Ralph Moor said that very little had been done in Sierra Leone and more ought to be done. He emphasized the fact that the local medical men would not act on the suggestions made to them by the skilled scientists, and he recommended the appointment of a Health Officer who would be a member of the medical staff as opposed to an independent authority, and whose advice would, therefore, be more likely to be acceptable to the Colonial medical officers. Sir West Ridgeway emphasized the difficulties in such an appointment of Health Officers, especially with regard to the relation of the Principal Medical Officers, and he also laid stress on the point that the matter was one mainly of administration and not a scientific question at all.

After a long discussion it was agreed, on the proposal of Sir Charles Lucas, that while the Committee were not prepared to endorse all Professor Ross's criticisms, and while they considered that great allowance should be made for local conditions and much consideration should be shown to the medical departments in the Colonies, which often worked under great difficulties, they desired to express the opinion that it was desirable to take all possible steps to secure the satisfactory education in regard to these matters of all medical officers to be sent out to tropical Colonies.

8. The letter from Captain Collins with regard to the expedition to Papua was read, and it was agreed to reply that the letter had been read with interest and the Committee would be glad to have details of any further action taken, but that perhaps it would be considered desirable to wait for the establishment of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Townsville before any steps were taken to carry out the proposed expedition.

9. Sir Patrick Manson undertook to make some observations on Dr. Heanley's suggested treatment for leprosy.†

10. It was agreed that the funds at the disposal of the Advisory Committee should be distributed as in the year 1908, but that no payment should be made to Professor Nuttall unless special application were made for the same. It was also agreed that, if available, a sum of £400 should be paid forthwith to the Bishop of North Queensland towards the establishment of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Townsville, and that a payment of £50 should, if possible, be made to the London School of Tropical Medicine to cover the cost of certain structural alterations which the increase in the number of students had rendered necessary. It was also agreed that a financial statement should be presented at the next meeting of the Board to slow exactly the position of the Board.

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No. 61.

BRITISH GUIANA.

SIR CHAS. LUCAS to SIR F. M. HODGSON. [Answered by 5746: not printed.]

Downing Street, 27 November, 1908. MY DEAR HODGSON,

Ar a meeting, held to-day, of the Tropical Diseases Research Fund Com- mittee, we had before us your despatch of 2nd of March last,* with a Minute by the

• No. 12.

† COLONIAL OFFICE NOTE.-This was done and the substance sent to the Governor, but Dr. Heanley's ill-health prevented further progress being made.