CO885-(20-21) — Page 328

38171

64

No. 132.

LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received November 28, 1911.)

[See No, 139.]

SIR,

I HAVE the honour to inform you that the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been offered the sum of £10,000 for the construction of a special building at the Royal Infirmary, in close proximity to the University of Liverpool, for the treatment of cases of tropical diseases in Liverpool, and for the improvement of the clinical teaching of the School.

B 10, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool, 27th November, 1911.

I have also to inform you that the School has recently founded and endowed a Chair in Entomology in the University of Liverpool, this being the second chair in connection with tropical medicine that it has founded and endowed in the University. Thirdly, I have the honour to inform you that the School is despatching Dr. Harald Seidelin, of its Yellow Fever Bureau, to Yucatan, in order to study the causative agent of that disease, which he has already long been investigating.

I am respectfully to express a hope that, in view of the large expenditure that the School is incurring in its efforts to study and teach tropical medicine-an expenditure largely defrayed by the citizens of Liverpool-His Majesty's Govern- ment may see its way to increase, if possible, the present annual grant given to this School, so as to enable it still further to extend its work, especially in the direction of much needed chemical researches. I am also to express a hope that this letter may be laid before the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund at its next meeting.

I have, &c.,

4.

65

systematized communication with the planting body, and to supervise detail generally;

(b) provision of larger and much better equipped Yaws Hospital accommoda-

tion;

(c) appreciably greater expenditure.

The present Yaws Hospital, two large barrack rooms with galleries, one for males and one for females, situated on a blazing hot sandy beach, half a mile from the town of Soufrière, and 28 miles from the chief town, Castries, is conducted as reasonably well as the circumstances permit of and up to the standard it was meant to conform to, but it is only the commonest class of labourer or labourer's child that it caters for, and the standard would certainly, in my opinion, have to be raised if the compulsory isolation, irrespective of persons or condition, which Dr. Nicholls wishes to see enforced, were to be insisted on. question of compulsion please see Mr. Cork's despatch, No. 136, of the 21st December, In connection with this 1906.*

5. I have recently called for reports from the District Medical Officers as to the prevalence of the disease of yaws in their districts, and enclose copies of the replies received.

6. As to the "Salvarsan" remedy, its permanent efficiency is, I have gathered, a matter that is still undecided, and its use requires to be attended with careful record of cases and vigilant examination of discharged persons for recurrences; it also appears to need a fairly up to date and instructed medical man to apply it safely, and all this, if so, appears to me to furnish additional reason for the desirability of professional control in any such yaws campaign as the report advocates.

I have, &c.,

EDWARD J. CAMERON,

Acting Governor.

38303

No. 133. BARBADOS.

A. H. MILNE,

Secretary.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received November 28, 1911.)

Government House, 13th November, 1911.

[ Published as No. 15 in Appendix I. to [ Cd. 6024].]

Enclosure 1 in No. 134.

DR. NICHOLLS to ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.

HONOURABLE ACTING COLOnial SecretarY,

I HAVE the honour to submit my half-yearly laboratory report. I beg to point

out that the charts at the end of the report answer a recent circular requiring the prevalence of yaws for each district.

Perhaps as the report is type-written and carefully corrected a proof copy might be dispensed with, for at the present time over six months elapse before the report is printed. The last report has not yet been received. October 16, 1911.

L. N.

(No. 218.)

No. 134.

Enclosure 2 in No. 134.

PUBLIC

RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

6

C.O.885

WINDWARD ISLANDS (ST. LUCIA).

THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(No. 150.) SIR,

(Received November 28, 1911.)

St. Lucia, 3rd November, 1911.

I HAVE the honour to forward the report* of Dr. L. Nicholls on laboratory work in St. Lucia for the six months ended 30th September last, which is furnished in compliance with the standing instructions contained in your predecessor's despatch, No. 104, of the 30th December, 1909.†

2. A copy of a covering minute from Dr. Nicholls is also sent. The revised proof of the last report to which he refers was returned to you in my despatch, St. Lucia, No. 126, of 29th August last. §

3. Such an organised campaign against yaws as Dr. Nicholls advocates requires, in my opinion, to be effective-

(a) the presence in the Colony of a Superintending Medical Officer to stimu- late and direct the enquires of the District Medical Staff, to conduct

No. 14 in Appendix VI. to [Cd. 6024], February, 1912.

No 13 in Appendix VI. to [Cd. 6024].

† 38368/09: not printed.

{ 30641; not printed.

SIR,

Vieuxfort, September 10, 1911.

I BEG to submit, according to His Excellency's request, a report on the extent to which the disease called " yaws" has been found by me to exist in my district;

and the extent to which I utilise the provisions of the existing law in dealing with it. Yaws is very prevalent in my district, especially in the heights of Vieuxfort, in such places as the heights of Retraite, Grace, Hope and Injeux, Cayanne and Savannes, &c.

It would not seem so to a casual observer, as, as soon as it is known that a stranger approaches the vicinity of the inhabitants' abodes, everyone suspected or known to be suffering from yaws is rigidly hidden from him, and located in some part of the bush around. But to a medical officer, or to the police generally, who go about and at times surprise them, it is well known to what extent the disease is to be found among them. Almost every hut has its secret place in the bush near by, or in a room in the hut, or in a small building near by, supposed to be a kitchen or some such appurtenance, where one or two members of the family are hidden and being treated by bush doctors. It would seem that they object to be treated by a medical man, and prefer the former course.

23284

* 753: not printad.

↑ No. 14 in Appendix VI. to [Cd. 6024], February, 1912.

38357

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO