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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TTTTT CO. 885

23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

Present position of Library.

Acquisitions.

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Dr. Bagshawe reported that Dr. Balfour was to be away for a period of four months, and that Dr. Bahr would act in his place as Sectional Editor for malaria and blackwater fever. He also mentioned that Dr. Henderson Smith was now able to undertake the work on plague.

4.

The Director reported that the number of translations to be made was increasing, and that in November and December the amount paid out had been £6 12s. Od. As it was certain that the amount so paid would continue to increase, he thought that it would be more economical and more satisfactory to appoint a Sec- tional Editor at £50 per annum, with the duty of making summaries of papers in foreign languages, and he suggested for this position Dr. Nias, who was, in his opinion, well suited for the work in question. The Committee agreed to the pro- posed appointment, to take effect from January 1st.

5. The question of accommodation was again considered. Dr. Bagshawe explained that the only concession which he had so far been able to obtain from the Imperial Institute was permission for readers to use a portion of the Institute library, a privilege which had not been taken advantage of and which was of doubt- ful value. The space at the disposal of the Bureau was certainly insufficient, and by the end of the year the shelves of the library would be completely full. If it were possible to obtain a small room, at present occupied by the Bureau of the Universities of the Empire, which was next to the rooms of the Bureau, the Bureau might manage to carry on for a couple of years. Sir John Rose Bradford pointed out that there must be great delay before the University of London vacated its quarters in the Imperial Institute, and he suggested that an effort should be made to obtain rooms for the Bureau at Burlington House, a much more central and con- venient situation than that of the Imperial Institute. Dr. Bagshawe agreed that the Imperial Institute was not a convenient situation. The Committee agreed, after full consideration, to represent to the Secretary of State that the work of the Bureau, which was of the greatest importance, had largely expanded: that the want of space hampered its operations, and that it was, in their opinion, most desirable that further accommodation should be obtained, either in the Imperial Institute or at Burlington House, which had the advantage of being a more central site and more convenient for the operations of the Bureau.

No. 21.

REPORT ON THE LIBRARY OF THE TROPICAL DISEASES BUREAU.

ON the establishment of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau in June, 1908, the formation of a collection of the published papers dealing with trypanosomes and the diseases caused by them was at once begun, as an aid to the Bureau's main work of collating and publishing information regarding sleeping sickness. The efforts put forward during the first four years of the Bureau's existence resulted in the getting together of the nucleus of a general library on tropical diseases, besides a collection of papers relating to the trypanosomiases which, for its completeness, is perhaps unique.

At 1st July, 1912, on the expansion of the Sleeping Sickness Bureaù into the Tropical Diseases Bureau, the Library contained about 350 bound volumes, mainly serial publications received in exchange for the Sleeping Sickness Bulletin, and some 1,500 reprints of papers. From that date the scope of the Library widened and the number of volumes has been more than trebled. The present position of the Library as regards the numbers of publications is shown below:--

Number of bound volumes

Number of reprints

Number of reports, Departmental Bulletins, unbound

pamphlets, &c.

...

1,100

2,100

600

The Library is housed in a room measuring 18 ft. by 12 ft. high, which has been fitted with mahogany-faced shelves at a cost of £75, and provides accommodation for about 1,200 to 1,300 volumes. This room is also used by the Assistant Director as his office.

Serial publications.-The Library's main source of accession is the exchange of the Bureau's publications with other suitable publications. Some 50 periodicals were on the exchange list of the Sleeping Sickness Bulletin. With the commencement of the Tropical Diseases Bulletin and the Tropical Veterinary Bulletin this list was

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revised in November, 1912, a few exchanges being discontinued and many additional ones being obtained. At 31st December, 1913, 122 periodicals were in exchange with the Tropical Diseases Bulletin and 39 were in exchange with the Tropical Veter- inary Bulletin.

The Bureau also subscribes to the following periodicals, at an annual cost of about £35.

Archiv für Protistenkunde.

Beihefte z. Archiv für Schiffs- und Tropen-Hygiene.

Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société Médicale des Hôpitaux de Paris. Centralblatt für Bakteriologie 1. Abt. Referate (now discontinued). Dermatologisches Centralblatt (now discontinued).

Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift.

Index Medicus.

Journal of Cutaneous Diseases, including Syphilis.

Journal of Hygiene.

Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Medicina Contemporanea (Lisbon).

Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift.

Parasitology.

Riforma Medica (now discontinued).

Semaine Médicale (now discontinued).

Wiener klinische Wochenschrift.

Zeitschrift für Chemotherapie, Originale.

Zeitschrift für Hygiene.

The geographical distribution of the journals received is as follows:--

Great Britain Italy France Germany

EUROPE.

Belgium

Holland

Russia

2211 ml p

1

26 20

17

15

Switzerland

Portugal

4

Spain

Austria

2

Greece

1

AMERICA.

United States

31

South America

6

Central America Canada

4

1

ASIA.

Indo-China

1

Dutch East Indies China

Mauritius

1

Philippine Islands

1

AFRICA.

Union of South Africa Egypt Tunis

2

Algiers Nyasaland Protectorate

1

1

1

AUSTRALASIA.

Australia

2

New Zealand

India

321

21

1

The policy of completing the sets of the more important tropical journals in The Bureau has the Library by purchasing the earlier volumes has been adopted.

An asterisk marks those now complete series of the following 43 publications. journals which are of more especial interest to workers on tropical medicine.

BRITISH EMPIRE.

*Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology (Liverpool).

*

Bulletin of the Entomological Research (London). Canadian Medical Association Journal (Toronto).

* Indian Journal of Medical Research (Calcutta).

Journal of Economic Entomology.

Journal of Hygiene (Cambridge).

* Journal of the London School of Tropical Medicine (London).

* Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps (London).

Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (London).

Lister Institute, Collected Papers (London).

Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Veterinary Series.

* Nyasaland Sleeping Sickness Diary (Zomba).

H

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