CO885-24 — Page 447

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11. When we first started there was a general appreciation of the free treat- ment, intermingled with some suspicions aroused from the financial state of the Colony; it was short of funds and increased taxation was being discussed; they looked on us as agents of the Government to find out who could be taxed; this almost became a certainty in their minds as we numbered their houses in our process of census-making. A little later another idea began to permeate. They thought Mr. Rockefeller had given a large amount of money to help the black labourers, and that a certain sum was to be given to each person that took the medicine. high as five shillings a head; many refused to take the treatment if they did not receive the money, and even went as far as accusing the staff of themselves pocketing it.

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I fancy this idea was begotten of the improvement in their general health after a first treatment, when the appetite went up in leaps and bounds; and they openly objected to subsequent doses as they had not the means to feed themselves. valley with innumerable bread fruit trees this improvement in appetite was expressed in terms of the numbers of bread fruit one could eat at one meal after treatment.

12. It was unfortunate that at the start of the campaign the containers had not arrived from New York, and there was some delay in getting examinations. A small supply was borrowed from Grenada. Luckily the International Health Com- mission allowed us 20 lbs. of thymol, which we used in capsules bought locally. Cap- sules filled with thymol ordered by cable from Parke, Davis & Company were only supplied four months after the cable. Towards the end of the second quarter I had to fall back on beta-naphthol or suspend the campaign. The dosage of thymol used was a maximum of 40 grains for adults, in two doses of 20 grains each.

13. One of the most obstinate factors in the progressive treatment was the natural teadency of procrastination of the native; he keeps on putting off taking his dosages. If the patient is very ill and quite incapable of doing any work owing to the intense degree of infection. he will, as a rule, take his first dosage quite quickly Luckily this stage of infection is by no means common. The percentage of infec- tion is high, but the degree of infection slight or just sufficient to render the patient less capable of earning a full wage. He is, therefore, less desirous of sacrificing a day's pay, small though it is, and we were driven to utilize Sundays more than I had thought would be likely. A general public holiday was. at times, useful; but any- thing of the nature of an ecclesiastical festival was fatal to our work, and there seem to have been an exceptional number of such festivals during the first quarter. If heavy rain fell on the evening when the first dose of salts was to be taken that was another excuse for delay. No house has a privy, and many have no accommo- dation in the form of "pot chambre "; consequently, it is unfair to drive your patient to tramp in the rain and wet to deposit his excreta in the grass behind his house, where he may again infect himself a few days later.

14. The number who have actually refused either examination or treatment is relatively small. The greatest objecters to examination have been among the white people, who, though possibly free of infection, are too modest or proud to have the fact definitely known. Some of the blacks who have refused treatment after examination have told us that they have no intention of getting rid of any worms they may have inside them, that this kind of treatment did not exist when they were younger, and there can be no necessity for it now. "There is no fool like an old fool.' A very typical case of this kind is the baker attached to the factory pro- vision shop, an old man of about 65, whose mother and father were true-bred Africans. Definitely infected with hookworm, of the most filthy habits, I cannot imagine a more fruitful source of oral infection if such a manner of infection exists. With unwashed hands he kneads the dough and handles the loaves after they are baked, with his hands in the same unwashed state after his morning call in the grass hehind the oven.

It has not often happened that persons have directly refused because they would not forgo their tot of rum, nor have there been any accidents through taking of alcohol during the treatment. Rum is extensively used through the valley even where there are no licensed retailers; hucksters make a tidy sum by carrying their bottles in baskets around the habitations. I have not observed any sign descriptive

of the contents of the bottles, as the "bay leaf" was formerly used in St. Vincent to designate "mountain dew."

15. The migratory habit is not noticeable among the barrack-rooms, chiefly at Crown Lands and Soucis. I personally did the field work at Soucis, and was struck at the frequent changing of locality among the labourers there. There were no

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