CO885-(20-21) — Page 213

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

سيلنسس

Reference :-

C.O.

885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO

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is still more important, namely, for the purpose of dupli- cating the special appointments of Protozoologist, Hel- miuthologist, and Arthropodologist, referred to above, and for enabling one man in each department to be continu- ously engaged on research work abroad or at home. The present holders have a good deal of teaching work, and it is not always possible to detail them for special pieces of research work. At the same time, men with these special qualifications are of the greatest value in advancing the investigation of disease and are much sought after, as is evidenced by the fact that two of the present men have done excellent work in the Sudan for the Sudan Govern- ment, one of them has been of great assistance to the Grouse Commission in Scotland, another is now at Bagdad carrying out investigations which are likely to have an important bearing on the deadly disease of Kala-azar, and- one of them will probably be sent to Sicily in the summer to investigate Bilharzia, which occurs in South Africa and some of our other Colonies.

(b) The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The part played by this School in the development of tropical medicine is too well known to make it necessary to describe its work at length.

Its functions are similar to those of the London School, but, while the latter has done more in the direction of teaching, the former has been enabled, by the generosity of the people of Liverpool, to do far more in the way of sending research expeditions to different parts of the tropics. The School has received a sum of upwards of £100,000 in private donations, and the example set by Liverpool might well be followed by London.

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The staff of the School is not a large one-e.g., is only a single appointment of Lecturer in Economic Entomology and Parasitology corresponding to the three special appointments of Protozoologist, Helminthologist, and Arthropodologist at the London School-and money could, no doubt, be usefully spent in increasing it and providing for further investigations at home and abroad.

(c) The Department of Protozoology of London Uni- versity.-A. Professorship of Protozoology (salary £750 & year) was established in 1906 at London University by means of a grant from the Tropical Diseases Research Fund. The time of the professor is devoted both to research and to teaching, and laboratory accommodation has been found for him at the Lister Institute. The present holder has carried out research work on trypanosomes in Uganda, at the Zoological Station at Rovigno in Austria, and at the Laboratory at Sutton Broad, Norfolk.

During two months of the year he gives a general course of lectures on the protozoa, followed by an exhibit of microscopic preparations illustrative of the subject of the lecture. The attendance at the lectures last year averaged about 15, and included principally advanced students of the University and medical men. In addi. tion 12 persons worked in the Professor's laboratory or in consultation with him. He has two highly-qualified assistants.

Although protozoology and helminthology are very large and important departments of tropical medicine, I believe that this professorship at London University is the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom, or, for the matter of that, in the Empire.

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As will be seen from what has been stated above there are two or three appointments of this kind attached to the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical Medicine, but the time of the holders of them is entirely occupied in dealing with the immediately pressing problems of tropical disease or with routine teaching. This is inevitable under present conditions, as we cannot afford luxuries; but I am informed that there is urgent need of a man who will devote his time to the more theoretical side of the question and group and classify the different protozoa and helminths, and in fact introduce some system into these departments of science in the same way as has been done in the case of entomology. The fact that this co-ordination is waiting to be done and that there is ample scope for more work on the lines which are at present being followed by the Professor at London University, would justify the creation of one or two additional professor- ships of Protozoology and Helminthology were the necessary funds forthcoming. If these new professors were appointed to one or two of the other Universities, they would in their turn gather round them other groups of pupils or collaborators, with the result that the branches of science in question would be placed on a far sounder basis, to the benefit of medical science generally.

There are three other institutions, whose sphere of action is of a more general character but at which work in con- nection with tropical disease is being carried out for the Government. These are:-

(d) The Lister Institute.-The Institute has its own endowment and is available for research work in con- nexion with both human and animal diseases. As has been stated above, the Protozoologist of the University of London is provided with laboratory accommodation at the Institute, and during the last three or four years Mr. Plimmer's investigations on behalf of the Govern- ment of Uganda into the action of certain drugs on the sleeping-sickness germ have been carried out there. The Institute also gave great assistance in the recent investi- gation of plague in India and has helped the Gold Coast Government in the same direction.

Mr. Otto Beit's recent benefaction provides for the yearly grant of 30 scholarships of the value of £250 per annum each, and some of these scholarships will be awarded for work in connection with tropical disease. As the scholarships are only tenable for three years, there seems to be a risk that the holders of them will be cut adrift before they have had time to accomplish any important piece of research work. I think, therefore, that

would be a good arrangement if the Government were to provide two or three scholarships of higher value (say £500 a year), which could be given for a further period of three or four years to men who had shown ability in tropical disease research during their novitiate under Mr. Beit's scheme.

The authorities of the London School of Tropical Medicine proceeded on somewhat similar lines with regard to their Protozoologist and Helminthologist. They selected young men who had shown aptitude for research and gave them small initial salaries of £250 a year, which were gradually increased as they acquired experience and became more valuable. The experiment has proved entirely successful. It is the most difficult thing in the