CO885-(20-21) — Page 392

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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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The question was discussed informally as to where the enlarged Bureau should be located. The Imperial Institute was suggested, with the alternative of Bur- lington Gardens, and Mr. Read undertook to make enquiries privately to see what would be possible. Sir J. Rose Bradford explained that it would not be possible for the Royal Society to afford increased accommodation.

It was agreed that the question of the Veterinary Bulletin should stand over until the next Meeting, as the Director's time would be sufficiently occupied by other business.

14521.

SIR,

No. 61.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNORS.

(Ceylon.)

(Federated Malay States.)

(Southern Nigeria.)

(Gold Coast.)

(Sierra Leone.)

(Miscellaneous.)

(Gambia.)

(Fiji.)

(British Guiana.)

(Trinidad.)

(Jamaica.)

Downing Street, 21 July, 1911.

I HAVE the honour to lay before you a scheme for expanding the Sleeping Sickness Bureau into a Bureau dealing with the tropical diseases of men and animals generally.

2. The Sleeping Sickness Bureau was established in 1908 for the purpose of collecting and supplying accurate information regarding the work which has been, and is being, done in the way of research into the origin and transmission of sleeping sickness, and regarding the measures of treatment and prevention.

3. The Bureau, which the Royal Society has generously provided with accom- modation free of cost in Burlington House, is supported by contributions of £1,000 per annum and £300 per annum from the Imperial and Soudan Governments respec- tively. The director of the Bureau is Dr. A. G. Bagshawe, who has been temporarily seconded from the Uganda Medical Service and who has shown himself to be in every way fitted for the work, and its work is carried on under the supervision of an unpaid Advisory Committee composed as follows:-

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Sir J. West-Ridgway, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Chairman. Sir P. Manson, M.D., K.C.M.G., F.R.S.

Sir J. Rose Bradford, M.D., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., Secretary of the Royal

Society.

Colonel Sir D. Bruce, C.B., F.R.S.

Colonel Sir W. Leishmann, C.B., F.R.S.

A member of the Foreign Office, representing the Soudan Government, and A representative of the Colonial Office.

Sir R. Boyce was a member of the Committee, but the vacancy caused by his death has not yet been filled.

4.

The nature of the work done by the Bureau will be seen from the enclosed publications, one of which is a specimen copy of the monthly bulletin, dealing with Strictly scientific work, and the other a popular pamphlet for the use of traders, travellers, &c., exposed to risk of infection. A map showing the distribution of the various species of tsetse fly throughout Africa has been prepared and also a valuable bibliography of sleeping-sickness literature, containing some 2,000 references.

5. I am of opinion that the work done by the Bureau during the three years of its existence has been in every respect satisfactory and has fully justified its creation. Being in touch with practically everyone engaged in the investigation of sleeping sickness throughout the world, the Bureau has acquired a very high international position as a scientific institution, while its advice has been of great value to this Department in dealing with the numerous problems connected with sleeping sickness. It now appears to me to be desirable to extend the usefulness of the Bureau by placing it in a position to deal with tropical diseases generally.

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6. The new Bureau would publish periodical bulletins containing classified summaries of the current literature of the tropical diseases of men and animals. It would prepare and keep up to date classified lists of references and its library would contain a classified collection of reprints of recent papers which could be consulted by bacteriologists and medical officers on leave from the tropics. One of its duties would be to answer letters in which information was asked for, and from time to time accounts would be published of the recent advances in the knowledge of the various diseases, with indications as to the openings for research which appeared to be most promising.

7 As regards skilled investigators, a large and rapidly increasing amount of research work in connection with tropical disease is being carried out throughout the world, and it appears to me that, without some central agency to collect, translate, and co-ordinate the numerous publications in different languages, it is difficult, if not impossible, for those whose work lies in distant countries to keep abreast of the literature of their subject.

8. To instance papers on trypanosomiasis alone, I am informed that it is difficult even in London to obtain access to all the journals in which such papers are published, and that the bibliography attached to the first number of the Bulletin" of the present Bureau, which deals with only one aspect of the sleeping sickness problem, includes the titles of some 180 publications in different languages, including French, German, Russian, and Portuguese.

**

9. But if a Central Bureau is required for the purpose of collating and con- densing the voluminous literature of tropical disease, it appears to me to be equally required for the purposes of ensuring that results obtained in one part of the world shall be made rapidly known to those who are working at the same subject in other countries.

10. In the British Colonies provision for the systematic investigation of tropical disease has been made in the Federated Malay States, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Southern Nigeria (where a Central Research Institute for all the British Colonies in West Africa has been recently established), British Guiana, the Windward Islands, and Queensland. Now in the case of countries like Ceylon and the Federated Malay States, which lie at no great distance from each other, there may well be a rapid exchange of information between the different workers; but without some central distributing agency there can be no such rapid communication between investigators living in countries so far distant from each other as (say) the West- Indies from the Eastern Colonies, with the result that there must be much waste of time and energy in consequence of duplication of work, &c.

11. This difficulty, which is sufficiently great when only the possessions of this country are concerned, is, of course, intensified when it is a question of the exchange of information between British Possessions and those of a foreign country.

12. But if it is difficult for skilled investigators with their special opportunities to keep in touch with the extensive literature of tropical medicine, it must be virtually impossible for the ordinary medical officers and private practitioners to do so.

At the same time, it seems desirable on every ground that this large body of medical men should be able to make themselves acquainted as easily and as rapidly as possible with the most recent developments of tropical medicine.

13. Further, it appears to me that useful work might be done by the proposed Bureau in preparing and keeping up to date, for the use of non-medical residents and travellers, a series of pamphlets dealing with the important tropical diseases from a less technical standpoint than the purely scientific publications of the Bureau. The pamphlet relating to sleeping sickness which has been published by the present Bureau has had a wide circulation.

14. The study of the current literature of tropical medicine will, no doubt, bring to the notice of the Director and his assistants various points which require investigation, and it might be possible for them, with the assistance of the expert members of the Committee of Management and of officers on leave, to carry out the research work at the Lister Institute or some other laboratory in this country possessing the necessary facilities. In any case there would be formed by the Bureau in the course of time a unique collection of publications relating to tropical medicine,