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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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No. 117.

MINUTES OF THE SECOND ORDINARY MEETING OF THE TROPICAL DISEASES RESEARCH FUND ADVISORY BOARD OF 27TH NOVEMBER, 1906.

PRESENT:

Sir. WEST RIDGEWAY, Chairman.

Sir M. FOSTER.

Sir P. MANSON.

Sir R. MOOR.

Mr. C. P. Lucas.

Mr. T. W. HOLDERNESS.

Surgeon-General A. M. BRANFOOT.

Mr. H. J READ.

Mr. KEITH, Secretary.

1. The Minutes of the first Ordinary Meeting of 27th June* were passed. 2 and 3. Note was taken of the reports of the Liverpool School. Attention was called by Sir M. Foster to Dr. Stephens's recommendation that the duration of the course of instruction in tropical parasitology and bacteriology should be extended to six months, instead of three months, and he urged that notice of this suggestion should be taken in acknowledging the report. Sir P. Manson pointed out that even six months was inadequate for a full course, and stress was laid by Sir W. Ridgeway on the difficulty and expense of insisting on so long a period as six months' training in the case of officers on first appointment. Mr. Holderness and General Branfoot pointed out that officers of the Indian Medical Service took the course at present at their own expense, and many would not do so if the term was increased. Finally, it was agreed that the School should be informed that note had been taken of the suggestion, and that it would be brought to the notice of the Secretary of State, and that sympathetic reference should be made in the Annual Report. Sir W. Ridgeway and Mr. Read suggested that a solution might be found in retaining the three months' course on first appointment, but in arranging for a longer course for officers recom- mended by the local authorities for special training when they came home on leave.

4. With reference to the London School report, Sir P. Manson mentioned that the Helminthologist was expected to return from Egypt at the beginning of the year, bringing material which would require about six months to work up, when he would be available for further research. The Protozoologist had been working in Germany, and would proceed, after the new year, to Egypt to join an expedition up the Nile to study the parasitology of the Nile Valley. Sir M. Foster drew special attention to the report by Mr. Leiper on Dracontiasis.

5. Sir P. Manson explained that it was proposed to establish an Entomologist in connection with the London School of Tropical Medicine. Sir P. Manson insisted on the importance of such an appointment. At present reference had to be made to Paris in order to identify specimens, and the most pressing need of the School was the appointment of an Entomologist, £300 would be required for his salary, and possibly £200 for miscellaneous expenses, and the School would provide him with laboratory room. Sir M. Foster endorsed Sir P. Manson's view as to the appointment of an Entomologist, but he thought it would be well to secure that his sphere of work should not be limited to the London School. He suggested, therefore, that he should be attached to the London University, and might work mainly at the London School, but also at the Lister Institute. Sir P. Manson urged the claims of the London School, which alone had the necessary material. Mr. Read mentioned that an Entomologist might be shared between the London School and the Veterinary College, and Sir M. Foster appeared to consider that this might be possible.

It was pointed out that to secure funds it would be necessary to induce the Royal Society to surrender the £500 which was now granted annually. It was the inten- tion of the Royal Society to use the sum for sleeping sickness research, and Mr. Read suggested that the Treasury might be approached to see whether they would not consent to put the sum of £500 on the Uganda Estimates, leaving the £500 granted by the Advisory Board free.

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Firstly, it was decided to approach the Treasury with regard to this proposal; then to ascertain if the Royal Society would consent to surrender the grant, or desired to apply it to some other purpose and, if they consented to surrender, to negotiate with the London University as to the appointment of an Entomologist.

6. Mr. Lucas proposed that the annual report should contain :—

(1) The names of the Board;

(2) The revenue and expenditure for the year 1905;

(3) A brief summary of the results attained;

(4) The reports of the Liverpool and London Schools and of the Royal Society

as appendices.

Sir P. Manson consented to assist in the preparation of (3). It was agreed to circulate the report in proof for the consideration of the Board, and when finally approved, to publish it, if Lord Elgin permitted, as a Blue Book, and send it out in a Circular despatch to the Colonies concerned. Mr. Read suggested, and it was agreed, that reference should be made to the establishment of a Professor of Proto- zoology at Cambridge as a gratifying sign of the results of the activity of the School in establishing a Professor of Protozoology in London.

7. With regard to (7), Mr. Lucas explained that the Memorandum was laid before the Board for information, and he suggested, and it was agreed, that the Memorandum and the Circular despatch of 23rd April, 1906, should be printed in the annual report as appendices. The Board was consulted as to the policy of having a central laboratory in West Africa with reference to the question of the training of Colonial doctors and the utilising of such a laboratory. Mr. Holderness and General Branfoot pointed out that the policy of the Government in India was to establish such laboratories with trained staffs wherever possible. Sir M. Foster expressed strongly the opinion, in which Sir P. Manson concurred, that such local laboratories were of great value and importance. Sir R. Moor and Sir W. Ridgeway concurred in this opinion, but Sir R. Moor laid stress on the fact that unless there was a special trained staff such laboratories were merely a cause of waste of public money. All agreed in expressing the opinion that a central laboratory in West Africa would be most valuable, both for the purposes of research and for clinical work; that it would in no way interfere with the training of officers in Europe; and that it should be manned by a special staff.

It was also agreed that the Board should supervise the existing research laboratories in the Straits, Hong Kong, Federated Malay States, Mauritius, Ceylon, British Guiana, and Trinidad, and that the Secretary of State should be advised to call for six-monthly reports on the work done in those laboratories.

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GENTLEMEN,

No. 118.

COLONIAL OFFICE to CROWN AGENTS.

Downing Street, December 5, 1906. I AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to inform you that he issuing from the Tropical Disease Research Fund at any time after the 1st of approves of your January, 1907, the sum of £500 to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the sum of £1,000 to the London School of Tropical Medicine.

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No. 119.

I am, &c.,

C. P. LUCAS.

COLONIAL OFFICE to THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, SIR,

Downing Street, December 5, 1906.

I AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th of November,* and to inform you that the report of the work done at the London School of Tropical Medicine for the half-year May-October, 1906, has

• Appendix V. (2) in [Cd. 3306].

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