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FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE

[1904.]

RELATING TO THE

FORMATION OF A SCHOOL OF TROPICAL

MEDICINE IN LONDON

AND THE

-APPOINTMENT OF A COMMISSION

TO INVESTIGATE MALARIA.

46461

No. 1.

MALTA.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

C.O. 885

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

r

SIR,

COLONIAL OFFICE to WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY.

•

[Answered by Nos. 2 and 3.]

Downing Street, January 2, 1904.

I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton to request you to inform

Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster

the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that his attention has been called to the prevalence and ill effects of Mediterranean Fever in Malta.

2. It is understood that during the year 1902 there were 421 cases of this fever in the Navy, and 187 cases in the Army. It appears that the average period of sickness was 90 days in the first and 80 days in the second case, but that beyond the days actually on the sick list there is often a long period, sometimes extending over months, when the person affected suffers from neuralgias and slight attacks of fever, and is unfit for any severe strain or heavy duty, and that many of the patients are finally invalided out of the service. In the case of the Civil population, the average number of persons a year who are attacked by this disease is 700, and when the length of the attack and the protracted convalescence which often ensues is taken into account, this represents a loss to the community of many thousands of pounds.

3. It accordingly appeared to Mr. Lyttelton to be advisable, from the point of view of the Army, the Navy, and the Civil population, that the investigation of this fever should be properly taken in hand, and he recently addressed a despatch* to the Governor of Malta inquiring whether, in the event of the War Office and the Admiralty considering that a Joint Commission is desirable, arrangements could be made for appointing Dr. Zammit, a member of the Colonial Medical Depart- ment, with large experience in this matter, to represent the Civil Government, and for allowing him to devote the whole of his time to the investigation.

• No. 125 in Miscellaneous No. 139.

18061

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