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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

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

Professor Crookshank had with the Earl of Selborne on the 1st inst., on the subject of the recognition of the work done in the laboratories of King's College in connection with the proposed arrangements for establishing a School of Tropical Medicine.

2. Mr. Chamberlain is giving his consideration to your letter, and a further com- munication will be addressed to you upon the subject.

J

29021.

No. 142.

I am, &c.,

C. P. LUCAS.

FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received December 24, 1898.) [Answered by No. 146.]

SIR,

Foreign Office, December 23, 1898. THE Marquess of Salisbury has been in communication with Her Majesty's Com- missioner and Consul-General for the Niger Coast Protectorate in regard to your letter of the 25th ultimo respecting the proposed School of Tropical Medicine, and I am directed by His Lordship to transmit to you, to be laid before Mr. Secretary Chamber- lain, a copy of Sir R. Moor's reply.

*

Sir R. Moor considers that the Protectorate funds can afford the contribution of £1,000 a year which it has been suggested they should make to the school in question; and Lord Salisbury proposes to make arrangements accordingly.

Copies of the circulars in your letter under reply will be sent to the various Pro- teetorates under the administration of this Department.

Her Majesty's Commissioner and Consul-General for British Central Africa has been instructed to act in regard to the pay and allowances of the members of the Malaria Commission in the manner indicated in your letter.

Enclosure in No. 142.

I am,

&c.,

FRANCIS BERTIE.

Elm Lodge, Winkfield, Windsor, December 9, 1898.

SIR,

I HAVE the honour to return enclosure forwarded me in your despatch of 2nd instant, and, replying to query for the information of Lord Salisbury as to the Protec- torate contribution to proposed School of Tropical Medicine, to state that I fully concur in the suggestion that the amount of same by £1,000, which I am of opinion can be borne as a charge on revenue of current year.

I would mention that some short time since the Manager of the Photographic Association, Mr. le Couteur, in the course of general conversation, suggested to me that the new photography might be of service in the investigation of causes, &c., of tropical diseases, and I had intended devoting one of the Protectorate Medical Staff to disenss the question with him. Mr. le Couteur was lately in Egypt, on behalf of the Govern- ment, I believe, employing the new photography in cases of wounds, and, in any event, it might be advisable that Medical Officers attached to the West African Forces should undergo short study in this direction to facilitate operations in cases of wounds which now have often to be delayed until officers return to England, owing to the danger of undertaking them in West Africa when the damage is not definitely located.

I would suggest that copies of the leaflet, "Enclosure in Mr. Chamberlain's circular despatch of 19th August, 1898," be at once sent to the Protectorate for distri- bution to Medical Officers.

The Under Secretary of State,

Foreign Office.

• No. 115.

I am, &c.,

R. MOOR.

29205.

SIR,

No. 143.

DR. MANSON to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received December 27, 1898.)

21, Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, December 26, 1898. IN connection with your letter,* No. 27700/98, and enclosures, I beg to offer the following remarks for Mr. Secretary Chamberlain's consideration.

Any attempt to teach tropical medicine by means of a hospital and a laboratory which are placed at a distance from each other would prove inefficient, if not imprac ticable. The circumstance mentioned in the second paragraph of the letter of the Principal of King's College, London, dated 22nd November, 1898,† and addressed to the Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office, namely, that in consequence of Professor Curnow's connection with the Dreadnought Hospital, the students of King's College have had musual opportunities for clinical instruction in tropical diseases, bears me out in this opinion. As a matter of fact, the students have not availed themselves of these opportunities, or, if they have, it has been to a very limited extent only.

For the eflicient study of tropical disease a flying visit to a hospital is of little use. In the case of several of the more important tropical diseases the student must pass hours by the bedside of the patient, and have his studies directed by a competent teacher. The enclosed cutting from the " Times "illustrates the necessity for this.

As regards the final paragraph of the letter of the Principal of King's College, I could not advise Mr. Chamberlain to recognise the course of instruction given in the bacteriological laboratory there as a qualifying course in tropical medicine for the medical cadets of the Colonial Service. The plan suggested by Professor Crookshank, to supplement laboratory work by visits to the various London hospitals, is distinctly impracticable. The student could not find time to hunt up cases in these hospitals, even if cases were to be found in them; moreover, assuming the cases were there, he would still lack the suitable teacher.

Were Professor Crookshank's request acceded to, every medical school or bacterio- logical laboratory in London and throughout the country would have an equal claim to be regarded as affording a qualifying course of study. Teaching hospitals would then be closed to all but their own students, and the already meagre supply of tropical cases would be so diluted that the requisite available clinical material in each hospital would be practically valueless.

I consider daily attendance at a hospital in which an adequate number of tropical cases are treated, daily clinical instruction by a competent teacher, a systematic course of study of the whole range of tropical disease, and systematic work in an appropriate laboratory attached to the hospital, the course of attendance in hospital and laboratory to extend over at least two or three months, the minimum qualification in tropical medi- cine for the Colonial Medical Service.

The bacteriological instruction supplied in Professor Crookshank's laboratory can be obtained, or will cre very long be obtainable, in every medical school in the country. and in the near future will be regarded as an indispensable qualification for a medical degree. The clinical and pathological study of tropical disease should be superadded to this in the case of every medical practitioner intended for work in the tropics.

I am, &c.,.

PATRICK MANSON.

Enclosure in No. 1-43.

"TIMES," December 24, 1898.

THE PROPOSED SCHOOL FOR TROPICAL DISEASES.

To the Editor of the "Times."

SIR-Perhaps the following statement of the experience of one who has recently been studying malaria at the Royal Albert Dock Hospital may not be without its signifi- cance. I suppose that I may claim to represent that section of the me:lical profession

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• No. 140.

† No. 105.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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