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3. Sir Rubert Boyce called the attention of the Director of the Bureau to the fact that in the gold mining districts of the Gold Coast there were several old enses of sleeping sickness, and enquired whether he had received any reports. The Director stated that he had received no facts; and it was agreed that he should call the attention of the Colonial Office, if necessary, to the matter, so that local enquiries could be set on foot. Sir Rubert Boyce emphasized the need of such enquiries, in view of the fact that it was important to induce the mining companies to send out to West Africa doctors fully acquainted with the recent results in research as to tropical diseases, who could report on any spread of sleeping sickness. He pointed out that the fly certainly existed in the districts in question, and the old cases rendered infection quite likely.

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No. 47.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SLEEPING SICKNESS BUREAU, HELD AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE ON THE 7TH OF OCTOBER, 1910, AT 3.30 P.M.

1.

PRESENT:

Sir WEST RIDGEWAY (in the Chair).

Mr. READ.

Mr. KEITH (Secretary).

Dr. BAGSHAWE also attended.

The Minutes of the Meeting of the 16th of September* were approved.

2. The questions raised by the despatcht from the Acting Governor of Uganda of the 19th of August were considered by the Managing Committee. Mr. Read pointed out that the despatch had evidently been written before the receipt of the Secretary of State's despatch, No. 299, of the 26th of July, in which it was suggested that Dr. van Someren should undertake travelling investigation. The Managing Committee therefore considered that as Dr. van Someren was to travel through the infected area it was only right he should continue to draw the special allowance of £50 which he had already been receiving, and Sir West Ridgeway considered that in the case of travelling through infected areas an extra allowance could properly be made. On the other hand, it was agreed that as a matter of principle it would not be right to sanction special allowances for the officers at work at Mpumu, and that the Governor should be so informed.

It was agreed that it would be desirable that two temporary medical officers should be appointed to relieve two other medical officers for the research work at Mpumu when Lieutenant Fraser and Dr. van Someren left the Protectorate. Dr. Bagshawe stated that he assumed that the officers mentioned in the 6th para- graph of the despatch were officers who had been employed at the sleeping sickness camps, and whose services were no longer required.

32021

No. 48.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SLEEPING SICKNESS MANAGING COMMITTEE HELD AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE ON THE 21ST OF OCTOBER, 1910, at 4.30 P.M.

PRESENT:

Sir WEST RIDGEWAY (in the Chair).

Sir RUBERT BOYCE.

Dr. ROSE BRADFORD.

Mr. READ.

Mr. J. A. C. TILLEY.

Mr. KEITHI (Secretary).

Dr. BAGSHAWE also attended.

(1.) The minutes of the meeting of the 7th October§ were approved.

(2.) It was agreed that the Acting Governor of Uganda should be informed that though Dr. Carpenter should make the laboratory his headquarters, he should

§ No. 47.

• No. 46.

No. 31.

‡ No. 32.

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be at liberty to proceed to Jinja if he considered it desirable. It was also agreed that the Officer Administering the Government should be informed that instructions would shortly be sent to Lieutenant Fraser, R.A.M.C. Dr. Rose Bradford mentioned that this had not yet been done.

(3.) The Director brought up again the question of Sleeping Sickness in Rhodesia. He pointed out that further cases had been reported of infection in Nyasaland, one European and three natives, and that the infection appeared to have been acquired locally. Moreover, there were cases at Fort Jameson. The British South Africa Company had declined to send out a Commission, but had telegraphed to ask Dr. Theiler if he could spare a man to assist in investigation in the place of Mr. Bevan.

It was mentioned that, as far as could be ascertained, Mr. Neave had been unable to find any palpalis in the Luangwa Valley. On the other hand morsitans existed in large numbers there, and under conditions very similar to those affecting palpalis. Moreover, if, as seemed to be the case, pulpalis was not the only means of carrying infection, then the situation became grave, as morsitans existed in large numbers in various parts of South Africa, as, for example, in Zululand. Sir West Ridgeway laid stress on the great importance of the matter and on the apathy of the Company, and it was agreed that the Managing Committee should unanimously call the attention of the Secretary of State to the grave danger which existed of the spread of sleeping sickness into other parts of South Africa, and the necessity of sending out without delay a Commission of investigation, and to suggest that the expenses of such a Commission should be defrayed by those interested-the British South Africa Company, the Rhodes Trustees, and the Government of the Union of South Africa. The points on which stress should be laid were, in the opinion of the Committee, the fact that the negative evidence was strong that Glossina palpalis was not found in the parts of Rhodesia and Nyasaland where sleeping sickness was appearing; that there was not only great danger to the localities in question, but that if another mode of infection existed it might well be that the disease might spread rapidly into Africa south of the Zambesi. tary the proof of an article by himself, giving a further statement of the case.

Dr. Bagshawe left with the Secre- The Committee were of opinion that the Commission would most usefully carry on its researches in the Luangwa Valley. It should consist of at least three or four members, one to do the laboratory work, one to do the clinical work, a veterinary expert, and an entomologist and bacteriologist. It was agreed that it might be possible to obtain a local medical officer who could carry out the clinical work, and it was pointed out that the British South Africa Company have an entomologist who could do that part of the work of the Commission, thus diminishing consider- ably the expense. Further details were left to be drawn up by Dr. Bagshawe. Great stress was laid by all the members of the Managing Committee on their recommendations in this regard, and the earnest attention of the Secretary of State was invited to their recommendations.

(4.) The Director reported that, at the rate of expenditure which was going on, there would be at the end of the year a balance of £350, being the amount of £500 contributed by the Government of the Transvaal on behalf of the Union of South Africa, less £150 expended in defraying the extra cost of the bibliography on Sleeping Sickness. It was agreed that steps should be taken to prevent that £350 falling due to be surrendered to the Treasury.

Mr. Read read a communication which he had received through Mr. Stockman from Dr. Theiler with regard to the proposal that the Sleeping Sickness Bureau should include a veterinary section and publish a bulletin relating to veterinary matters. Dr. Theiler suggested that a Tropical Animals Disease Burean should be appointed, and that contributions should be invited from the self-governing Dominions and the Crown Colonies. He stated that he would do his best to secure that a contribution was made by the Union of South Africa, presumably of the same amount as that given in the previous year. Mr. Read reminded the Managing Committee that the discussion at The Hague of 1909 had recommended the appoint- ment of an International Bureau. The experience in connection with the Sleeping Sickness Bureau had shown the unsatisfactory character of attempts to make an International Bureau, and he proposed, therefore, that a despatch should be sent to the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, explaining that a section of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau could deal with veterinary diseases at a small cost,

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