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2. While we recognise that the proposed bureau will serve a very useful purpose in diffusing information among persons interested in tropical diseases, we do not consider that it will be of special value to officers employed on bacteriological research in India, as they are generally able to consult the original literature on the subject. And, as your Lordship is aware, information concerning Indian diseases is disseminated by the circulation free of charge of "Scientific Memoirs edited by our Sanitary Commissioner by the issue of pamphlets on subjects of special interest, and by the inclusion in the annual sanitary report of summaries of the more important literature of the year concerning cholera, dysentery, and enteric fever, with special reference to Indian conditions. Thus we already do, to a con- siderable extent, what the new bureau, if we understand the proposal correctly, will do in a more general way and on a larger scale. In view of this and of the claims on Indian revenues of scientific inquiries in which we are more nearly interested, we regret that we do not feel justified in recommending a contribution to the funds of the proposed bureau.

29383

No. 38.

We have, &c.,

MINTO. KITCHENER. H. ADAMSON. J. O. MILLER.

W. L. HARVEY.

G. F. WILSON. S. P. SINHA.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE. [Answered by 5544 in Miscellaneous No, 254.]

Downing Street, 2 October, 1909.

SIR,

I AM directed by the Earl of Crewe to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd of September,* from which he has learnt with regret that the Secretary of State for India in Council and the Government of India are unable to sanction a contribution from Indian revenues towards the cost of the proposed Tropical Diseases Bureau.

2. Lord Crewe is reluctant to abandon a scheme which he cannot but think would be of great practical advantage to those engaged in the work of combating disease in our tropical Dependencies, and he ventures to submit a fuller statement of the case in the hope that Lord Morley and the Indian Government may find it possible to reconsider their decision.

3. The chief work the new Bureau would be to do for tropical disease generally what is now being done by the present Bureau for Sleeping Sickness. It would publish monthly or bi-monthly a bulletin containing classified summaries of the current literature of the tropical diseases of men, and to some extent of 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.

4. Lord Crewe will now give in greater detail his reasons for thinking that an organization of this kind would be of material benefit to the bacteriologists, medical officers, and private practitioners, in the tropical possessions of this country. 5. As regards the former class, a large and rapidly-increasing amount of research work in connection with tropical disease is being carried out not only in the tropical possessions of Great Britain and other countries, but also in Europe and America, and it appears to his Lordship 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.

• No. 37.

6.

91.

To instance papers on trypanosomiasis alone, Lord Crewe is informed that it is difficult even in London to obtain access to all the journals in which such papers are published. The papers reviewed in the Bulletin "of the present Bureau during May, June, July, and August, were, it understood, published in no less than

40 journals, of which only 12 were in English, and the bibliography attached to the first number of the "Bulletin," 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.

7. But if a Central Bureau is required for the purpose of collating and con- densing the voluminous literature of tropical disease, it appears to Lord Crewe 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.

8. In the British Colonies provision for the investigation of tropical disease has been made in Hong Kong, the Federated Malay States, Ceylon, Mauritius, Southern Nigeria (where a Central Research Institute for all the British Colonies in West Africa has been recently established), British Guiana, and Trinidad, while steps are being taken, to make similar provision in Jamaica and Queensland. Now, in the case of countries like Ceylon and the Federated Malay States, which lie at no great distance from India or from each other there may well be a rapid exchange of information between the different workers, but without some central distri buting 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 India and the Eastern Colonies, with the result that there must be much waste of time and energy in consequence of duplication of work, &c.

9. 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.

10. But, if it is difficult for bacteriologists with their special opportunities to keep in touch with the extensive literature of tropical medicine, it must be practi- cally impossible for the ordinary medical officers and private practitioners. 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.

11. Further, it appears to Lord Crewe 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. A pamphlet of this kind, relating to sleeping sickness, has been published by the present Bureau, and has had a wide circulation.

12. Lord Crewe has now indicated the principal functions of the Bureau, but there are other directions in which it will probably be of use.

13. 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.

14.

In the course of time there would be formed by the Bureau a unique collection of publications relating to tropical medicine, and it would be clearly to the advantage of those engaged in original investigation to have ready access to a library of this kind, and to be assisted in their search for information on special points by the staff of the Bureau.

15. Lord Crewe has stated above that the Bureau would deal with the current literature of the tropical diseases of men, and to some extent of animals, and to this might be added the literature relating to the insects which convey those diseases. As will be seen from the accompanying account* of the African Entomological Research Committee, which Lord Crewe has recently appointed, and of which the Earl of Cromer has consented to act as Chairman, there will be a material increase in this literature in the near future. It is proposed that the Committee should eventually undertake the study of the vermian and protozoal parasites which are the cause of tropical disease in men and animals, and this again will lead to a large

• 15794 in African No. 937.

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