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Inspector-General, and I am afraid the finances of this Colony will not be sufficient to admit of any contribution towards the salary and travelling expenses of such an officer if appointed. There has not so far been any opportunity for placing the suggestion before the Legislature, but I feel confident that it would not be favour- ably received here, and until the measures I have indicated above had a fair trial, I do not consider that it would be expedient to press the suggestion.

His Excellency

18148

Sir Ralph Williams, K.C.M.G.,

&c.,

&c., Grenada.

&C..

No. 45.

I have, &c..

P. C. CORK,

Administrator.

99

Colonies regarding the measures which it is considered desirable should be taken for the prevention of ankylostomiasis, and also a report on the subject by Dr. W. L. Braddon.

2. In inviting your careful attention to this matter, the importance of which, in view of the serious nature of the disease, and the extent to which it is known to be prevalent in this country, it is impossible to insist upon too strongly, I am to state that the Government relies upon all owners and managers of estates to assist to the full measure of their opportunities in combating the disease, and trusts that they will use their utmost endeavours to secure the strict enforcement of the rules already existing, and any others which may be framed under the ordinances and enactments relating to the employment of labour or the provision of proper sanitary arrange- ments, medical attendance, and the supply of medicines on estates.

3. It is not only incumbent on the management of each estate to see that all such requirements are fulfilled, but it is the duty of the Government to satisfy itself that they are fulfilled, and in the general interest to use all the powers which it possesses to enforce them in the case of any estate upon which they are found to be neglected.

I have, &c.,

W. EVANS, Acting Colonial Secretary,

Straits Settlements.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TILL C.O. 885

سسيا سيسيليا

20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(No. 184.)

MY LORD,

(Received 29 May, 1909.)

Government House, Singapore, 6th May, 1909. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your Lordship's despatch, No. 30, of the 4th February,* regarding the measures to be taken for the prevention of ankylostomiasis in the Colonies affected by this disease.

2. The various Ordinances of the Colony for the protection of Asiatic labourers, viz., the Indian Immigration Ordinance (VI. of 1904), the Chinese Agricultural Labourers Protection Ordinance (VIII. of 1891), the Netherlands Indian Labourers Protection Ordinance (XXI. of 1908), contain provisions requiring the employer to provide "sufficient and proper sanitary arrangements to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of Immigrants or Protector of Chinese, as the case may be," and I have already had under consideration the question of bringing together these provisions and others which impose duties on all employers of Asiatic labour on estates irrespective of the class of latour they employ in one Ordinance, and provid- ing for the regular inspection of such estates with a view to ensuring that require- ments are being effectively carried out.

3. A Bill to effect this is now being drafted, and I have requested the Attorney- General also to draft such amendments to the law as may be necessary to impose a penalty on persons found avoidably defecating in any place where contamination of the soil or water would be likely to cause risk of infection or elsewhere than in a place set apart for the purpose.

4. In the meantime, I have caused a circular, copy of which is enclosed, to be -distributed to all managers of estates in the Colony embodying your Lordship's despatch, and also the report by Dr. Braddon, dated 26th September last, on the subject.

5. The circular will, I hope, have the effect of reminding the managers that the Government is able, in the last resort, to cut off the supply of coolies to any estate on which the requirements of the Government Departments in charge of immigrants as regards sanitation are not complied with, and awaken them to a sense of the gravity of the danger arising from the prevalence of the disease referred

I have, &c.,

to.

(S. of S. No. 1396/1909.) SIR,

Enclosure in No. 45.

ARTHUR YOUNG.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Singapore, 24th April, 1909.

I AM directed to forward, for your information, the enclosed copy of a despatch received from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the

See No. 43.

To the Manager,

Estate.

REPORT by Dr. W. L. BRADDON, State Surgeon, Negri Sembilan. (M.D. 1322/1/1908.)

SIR,

The State Surgeon's Office, Seremban, 26th September, 1908. As Medical Adviser to several estates during the last six months, I have been enabled to study more closely than was possible formerly the conditions productive of disease among Tamils; and as a result of these observations I am able to affirm that it is to one single disease that almost all the mortality and sickness of the Tamil labourer is either directly or indirectly due. That disease is ankylostomiasis.

2. This condition (otherwise variously described as anæmia of coolies, tropical anæmia, anæmia and anasarca, acute anæmia, dropsy, “beri-beri of Ceylon," "&c.) is one of which the cause, a minute worm or worms (for two varieties are known, both of which are represented here), has long been well known to medical science. The presence of the parasite is easily detected, and when diagnosed as the cause of illness it is, under suitable treatment, readily expelled. The worm (sometimes called "Hook Worm") is parasitic in the small intestine. From this site, so long as their victim lives, the female worms discharge into the stools daily their thousands of microscopic eggs. These eggs develop in the stools outside the body, or in fæcally contaminated earth, into numberless embryos which are capable of penetrating the skin, and introduced in this manner, or by the mouth, into the system, ultimately reach their habitat, the intestine. Here they grow further into the adult parasitic worm. The embryos can live for long periods in damp earth, a condition which is realised almost everywhere in the surroundings of the dwelling of the Tamil.

3. Hooks worms are to be found, as has been from time to time recognised by the medical officers in the Federated Malay States, in few or greater numbers in almost everybody examined. For this reason-its very extreme prevalence chiefly, (it may be supposed) it has not been hitherto regarded as a very serious cause of illness generally. That this is so is shown by the records of the various hospitals both in the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, in which it may be observed that an extremely small proportion of all the cases admitted to hospital have been diagnosed as ankylostomiasis, although a considerable number of those admitted are described as cases of anæmia, anasarca, or dropsy, and are in all probability referable really to the parasite, but not so diagnosed or treated.

4. Partly from this fact (of its almost universal prevalence, and especially its presence in persons otherwise healthy) and partly because the accounts of the effects of the parasite given in text books present but a very imperfect picture of its depredations when severe, I had not myself till very recently attributed to this, their real cause, the many cases of enormous dropsy so frequently observed among Tamils.

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