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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

contributors were asked to renew their contributions at one-half of the present rates for a further period of two years; the question to be reconsidered towards the end of that period.

Dr. Bagshawe said that the Bureau would soon need improved accommodation, and the Chairman suggested that he should look out for a suitable opening.

The Committee were asked to appoint a successor to Mr. Sheather (who had Sir John McFadyean gone to India) as Editor of the Tropical Veterinary Bulletin. said that Captain J. T. Edwards, M.R.C.V.S., B.Sc., Royal Veterinary Corps, Mr. Sheather's locum tenens, had brought out the last number very satisfactorily, and Sir Stewart Stockman agreed. It was decided to offer the appointment to him. It was explained that the War Office would not allow him actually to resign his commission, but that he would be lent to the Bureau without pay from Army funds. Dr. Bagshawe read a letter from Colonel King asking for an increase of his remuneration as Sectional Editor (£50 a year). It was explained that Colonel King held decided views as to his functions as a critic of the acts and opinions on which he reported, but that he was now prepared to meet the views of the Director as laid down in a memorandum to be submitted to the technical members of the Committee. It was agreed to increase Colonel King's honorarium from £50 to £75 a year, as from the 1st instant.

The Committee gave covering sanction to an increase of 2s. 6d. in the pay of the two Bureau typists, as from 28th August; and agreed to the renewal for six months of the Treasury bills held by the Bureau,

The agents' accounts for the half-year April-September, 1916, were laid before the Committee; they showed a balance of £114 3s. 9d. due to the Bureau, making a total of £428 15s. 10d. received in the financial year 1916-17. This exceeded by £84 the previous highest receipts, in 1914-15.

19767

No. 56.

MINUTES OF THE EIGHTEENTH MEETING OF THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE TROPICAL DISEASES BUREAU, HELD AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE ON THE 13TH OF APRIL, 1917.

Present:

MR. READ (in the chair).

SIR PATRICK MANSON.

MR. BLECH.

DR. BAGSHAWE, Director, also attended.

THE minutes of the Seventeenth Meeting were approved.

The Director said that the index to the Tropical Veterinary Bulletin had hitherto been compiled by the editor of that Bulletin, Mr. Sheather, for the years 1913-15, Captain Edwards for 1916. Captain Edwards wished to be relieved of this duty as one consuming much time and requiring more skill than he possessed. It was proposed to intrust the index to Miss M. H. James, who was the compiler of the index to the Tropical Diseases Bulletin. at the rate of £3 108. per 1,000 entries. It was thought desirable to amplify the index, and the cost was estimated as not exceeding £12 per annum. Sanction was given to the proposal.

The Director reported that an opportunity had long been sought of obtaining for the Bulletin summaries of papers published in Japanese, many of which were of great value and not accessible in English or any European language. Since July, 1916, the China Medical Journal (published bi-monthly at Shanghai by the Medical Missionary Association of China) had contained in each number a "Review of Current Japanese Periodicals, by the Staff of the Research Depart- ment, Severance Union Medical College. Seoul, Korea, Ralph G. Mills, M.D., Director." The value of these summaries was recognized at the Bureau, and was emphasized by Dr. Leiper, who considers the work recently published in Japanese on certain branches of helminthiasis of much importance. The Director there- fore wrote to the editor of the China Medical Journal, asking if these summaries could be made available to the Bureau. The editor forwarded the letter to

* No. 58.

Dr. Mills, with whom he (the Director) had since exchanged letters. It appeared that this enterprise was conducted by Dr. Mills at his own charges of about £10

a month.

The proposal was that the Bureau should obtain the Japanese journals in question, that Dr. Mills should send translations of the titles of original papers in these journals, that from these the ones suitable for treatment in the Tropical Diseases Bulletin should be selected and abstracts asked for, and that the Bureau The should pay for the translated titles and such abstracts as were required. Committee was asked to sanction an annual expenditure not exceeding £25 on this project. The Director suggested that, if for any reason Dr. Mills should fail in his part of the bargain, the Bureau would have the Japanese journals, and could probably arrange in London for the translation of articles. Sanction was given to the expenditure.

The agents' accounts for the half-year October, 1916-March, 1917, were laid before the Committee. The sum due to the Bureau was £348 78. 9d., as compared

The Committe with £314 12s. 1d. for the corresponding half-year 1915-16. thought this satisfactory. As far as could be ascertained from the agents' state- ment the subscribers to the Tropical Diseases Bulletin numbered about five hundred, and to the Tropical Veterinary Bulletin about one hundred and fifty.

The Director reported that, after consultation with Mr. Read, he had converted the Bureau holding of £1,200 four-and-a-half per cent. War Loan, 1925-45, into five per cent. War Loan, the nominal value then being £1,263 3s., and had invested an additional £500 in the loan, making a total of £1,763 3s. The £1,000 Treasury bills held by the Bureau had been left to mature at the end of April. This was approved. The Account of Receipts and Expenditure for the year ended 31st March, 1917, was laid before the Committee, and, the Director reporting that the immediately available resources of the Bureau at the end of April would exceed £2,800, it was decided to renew the Treasury Bills for six months.

The Director reported that in November and December, 1916, he had examined a number of premises, with a view to suitable offices for the Bureau. Only one set of rooms, in Victoria Street, was considered suitable, and these had not been vacated by the tenants as had been expected. Nothing further had been done. Mr. Read suggested that the present was not a good time for obtaining new quarters; Dr. Bagshawe said that there was much congestion at the rooms occupied at the Imperial Institute, but concurred.

It was reported that Messrs. Fantham and Porter, having left this country, had resigned their posts as sectional editors. Dr. Blacklock had become temporary sectional editor for protozoology and amoebiasis, and Dr. Cockin had taken over Dr. Hindle's work (relapsing fever and typhus). Dr. Maclean had given up his post as substitute for Dr. Sandwith (pellagra). The Director did not propose to consider the appointment of another substitute till he knew to what extent the Bureau's consumption of paper would be restricted, a demand for a return of the consumption for 1916 having been received in March from the Royal Commission on Paper. Pellagra was a subject which, if necessary, could be temporarily dropped.