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41788/09

Annexure to No. 2,

The GOVERNOR OF BRITISH GUIANA to the SECRETtary of State.

(No. 394.)

MY LORD,

Government House, Georgetown, Demerara,

11th December, 1909.

I REGRET to find from your Lordship's telegram of the 9th instant, which I have to-day replied to, that, through an oversight, notification has not been given that at the annual session of the Combined Court. held in February and March a sum of £100 was voted as a contribution from British Guiana to the Tropical Diseases Research Fund. The vote is to be found under Medical Department, Item 25, page 33.

2. It is my intention to ask the Combined Court to vote the same amount annually, and I have no reason to suppose that the Court will not do so.

SIR,

*

No. 5.

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 22 January, 1910.)

South Kensington, S.W., 21st January, 1910. WITH further reference to your letter of December 31st, 1909 (No. 27911/ 1909), which has already been acknowledged, I am directed to forward to you the enclosed copy of a letter from Professor Minchin for transmission to the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund.

I am, &c.,

P. J. HARTOG,

Academic Registrar.

I have, &c.,

F. M. HODGSON.

24114

GENTLEMEN,

No. 3.

FIJI.

COLONIAL OFFICE to CROWN AGENTS.

Downing Street, 18 January, 1910. I AM directed by the Earl of Crewe to inform you that he approves of your paying from Fiji funds to the Tropical Diseases Research Fund the amount of two hundred pounds, being the contribution from that Colony to the Fund in respect of the years 1909 and 1910.

2. I am to add that the Colonial Government have undertaken that the grant of £100 shall be made for the years 1911 to 1914 inclusive, and I am to request that if instructions are not received regularly for the transfer of this sum to the credit of the fund the attention of the Secretary of State may be drawn to the

I am, &c.,

matter.

24114

(No. 15.) SIR,

No. 4.

FIJI.

C. P. LUCAS.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

Downing Street, 19 January, 1910. WITH reference to 'Mr. Major's despatch, No. 81, of the 24th of May,* I have the honour to transmit to you, for your information, the accompanying copy of a lettert which I have caused to be addressed to the Crown Agents for the Colonies authorizing them to pay to the Tropical Diseases Research Fund the sum of £200. being the amount of the contribution of the Colony to the fund for the years 1909 and 1910.

2. When my telegram of the 9th of Decembert was sent, asking whether the Crown Agents might be instructed to pay the sum of £100 to the fund for 1909, it was overlooked that the sum in question had been provided in the Estimates for 1909. Since the payment has not been made in the financial year 1909 you will no doubt take steps to secure that it will be re-voted this year.

I have, &c.,

CREWE.

• No. 66 in Miscellaneous No. 227.

↑ No. 3.

24114 not printed.

DEAR SIR,

Enclosure in No. 5.

The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine,

Chelsea Gardens, Chelsea Bridge Road,

London, S.W., 17th January, 1910.

WITH regard to the letter which you kindly forwarded to me from the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund, dated from the Colonial Office, 31st December, 1909, and drawing attention to the discrepancy between the negative results obtained by myself, and the positive results obtained by Dr. Breinl, in our respective experiments on the transmission of Trypanosoma lewisi by rat lice, I beg to state as follows:-

1. The experiments in question are those described by me in my report for the year ending June 30th, 1908, and published in the Report of the Advisory Committee for that year [Cd. 4476], p. 24. I have not performed any further experiments on this point.

2. The experiments gave, as stated, negative results, which may have been due to various causes. In such an experiment there are three living organisms involved, namely (a) the trypanosomes, (b) the lice, and (c) the rats which it is desired to infect. Hence the following possibilities present themselves: —

(a) It is highly probable that only certain forms of the trypanosome can establish themselves in the louse (or other invertebrate host), and render it infective, or that the trypanosomes must be in a certain physiological condition of age, growth, or other as yet unknown consti- tutional peculiarities, in order to produce this result. Thus, in the case of malaria, it is known that only certain forms of the parasite (the so-called crescents in the pernicious variety) can establish them- selves in the mosquito and render it infective; if these forms are not present in the blood which the mosquito sucks, it does not become infective.

(b) In experiments on the transmission of trypanosomes by invertebrate hosts by the cyclical method, it is invariably found that only a small percent- age of the invertebrates become infective. For example, Kleine, in his experiments on the transmission of trypanosomes by tsetse flies in Africa, found that only about five per cent. of the flies became infected (vide Bulletin, No. 9, of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau, p. 321); and Bruce, in an experiment recently published (Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1909, p. 405), found that of 60 tsetse flies (Glossina palpalis) fed for two days on infected monkeys, only one fly became infective. These results may be due to the cause stated above, namely, that only a small percentage of the trypanosomes in the blood are in the proper condition for establishing themselves in the digestive tract of the invertebrate, and rendering it infective; or it may be due to powers of resistance on the part of the invertebrate itself, whereby the greater number of the invertebrates are able to digest the trypanosomes

• Not printed.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

SPEC.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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