CO885-9 — Page 420

DRAKE BROCKMAN,

Medical Officer,

Berbera District.

156

Federated Malay States, or of appointing a Principal Civil Medical Officer for the States.

I have, &c.,

ALFRED LYTTELTON.

157

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER,

I HAVE noted with much interest that an intermediate host of the Filaria Bancrofti is found in the Somaliland Protectorate.

4398

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

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C.0.885

No. 189.

COLONIAL OFFICE to SIR P. MANSON.

(No. D/52/05.)

SIR,

your

SIR,

Downing Street, February 17, 1905. I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton to acknowledge the receipt of letter of the 9th instant, and to thank you for your observations on Sir J. Anderson's despatch with regard to the Kuala Lumpor Institute for Medical Research.

2. Mr. Lyttelton would be glad if you would inform the authorities of the London School of Tropical Medicine that Dr. Daniels's successor will be appointed on the same terms with regard to emoluments for two years, but that the arrangement may not be continued beyond that period, and would also explain the difference in the position which will be assigned to the successor.

am, &c.,

19941

(No. 190.)

No. 190.

I

C. P. LUCAS.

Berbera, April 29, 1905.

WITH reference to Dr. Paget's letter re the presence of a yellow-fever-carrying mosquito in Zeyla, I have the honour to inform you that I have been aware of the presence of Stegomyia fasciata in Berbera for many months...

If you are interested in the Diptera I may inform you that several members of that obnoxious group exist in Dubar and Berbera, and I am afraid they will always be with us until both places are properly drained and the tanks kept scrupulously clean.

Deputy Commissioner.-Are not the rules carried out as to cleaning tanks- please see to this.

Circulate to all officers.

E. S.

E. 8.

It may interest you to know that the Stegomyia fasciata usually breeds in the large earthen pots and canvas bags in which officers are accustomed to keep their soda water bottles to cool in the hot weather.

As a routine practice these pots and bags should be cleaned daily, so as to prevent the water becoming stagnant.

I have found hundreds of their larvæ in such places in Berbera.

Another of the common Berbera mosquitos is the ubiquitous culex fatigans. Magnificent specimens of this can be taken at Dubar and I venture to say Biandula also.

I shall have much pleasure in informing you further on this most interesting subject, if you so desire.

It is not surprising that the yellow-fever-bearing mosquito should be found here as it has been found freely dispersed through Egypt-Ismailia and Suez Canal and even Abyssinia.

SIR,

SOMALILAND.

COMMISSIONER SWAYNE to MR. LYTTELTON.

(Received June 10, 1905.)

[Copy to Sir P. Manson, June 19, 1905. L.F.]

Somaliland, Commissioner's Office, Camp Daraas, May 25, 1905.

I HAVE the honour to forward a report by Dr. Paget, Senior Medical Officer, and correspondence, in regard to the presence on the coast of a fly which Dr. Paget informs me may under certain conditions be dangerous as furnishing a means of conveying yellow fever.

SIR,

(No. 119.)

I have, &c.,

E. J. E. SWAYNE,

Brigadier-General.

Enclosure in No. 190.

Zeyla, British Somaliland, April 26, 1905.

I HAVE the honour to inform you, with reference to any future arrangements, or importation of foreign live stock, that expert opinion in England declares one of the variety of flies in this neighbourhood to be the only known agent in the spread of yellow fever.

I have therefore to inform His Majesty's Commissioner that an intermediate host of Filaria Bancrofti exists on this coast.

I should be obliged by an acknowledgment of the receipt of this note, and a copy of any orders that might be issued in connection with this matter.

His Majesty's Deputy Commissioner,

Berbera.

THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER,

I have, &c.,

DRAKE BROCKMAN,

Medical Officer,

Berbera District.

MEMORANDUM. No. 207/C.

THE letter is addressed to you. It would be interesting to know whether the presence of this fly has only recently come about, or whether it has been an inhabitant of the coast all along. In this case, it would be advisable to get records of the number of yellow fever cases known to have occurred at Zeyla. I do not yet know whether foreign live stock is likely to be imported-of course, it may be in the future-but, at present, we are an exporting country.

When Dr. Paget is able to communicate to me the result of his further enquiries, and has made suggestions as to what he considers should best be done, I will consider his suggestions and give orders as desired, but at present, it appears our information is somewhat too scanty to enable me, without further reference, to give orders in a matter of this kind.

May 4, 1905.

I have, &c.,

A. J. M. PAGET, M.D.,

Senior Medical Officer.

His Majesty's Deputy Commissioner, &c., &c., Berbera.

SIR,

• No. 187.

E. J. E. SWAYNE,

Brigadier-General.

Somaliland Protectorate, Office of the Senior Medical Officer,

Zeyla, May 12, 1905.

I HAVE the honour to inform you, in reply to the Memorandum of His Majesty's Commissioner, No. 207/C, herewith returned :—

(1) The fly is probably of modern importation, being carried on the sea level

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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158

in ships trading to the East, as it does not live nor is easily carried over raised uplands.

(2) There are no recorded cases of yellow fever on the books here, which are the only ones I have seen. Mild cases might be confounded with bilious remittent malarial fever.

(3) The importance is, that of an infected animal reaching the coast, when should the fly bite such animal and a person, as following the line of instinct for breeding purposes in the fly, a cycle through fresh stock is quickly assumed.

(4) We have got the fly (intermediate host). I do not know if the "germ

or organism carried by this mosquito is here. But all the necessary conditions for its growth are, and are the same as are given in the second point raised.

The second point raised is: The same fly also is an intermediate host for the organism the Filaria nocturna (F. Bancrofti). This I suspect is in the country on the coast, because :-

(A) It is not easily killed, but becomes more active with great heat

(above 75° F.).

(B) The presence of boils during the hot season is not at present obviously accounted for unless some pus-determining agent is here, as this organism.

(c) Because of the great heat this organism is unlikely to be any of the three common ones severally found in abscesses in Europe, which are easily killed at these temperatures.

The conditions. High temperature, sea coast level, high barometric pressure, animal refuse on a shore and near fresh water are the ideal conditions for the yellow fever organism.

We might expect an outbreak of yellow fever confined to the coast region if the one link of an infected animal be supplied.

My suggestions are: 'Examination among natives and patients for the Filaria nocturna in their blood. For the present pro- hibit all but European live stock being imported, to include also monkeys and guinea pigs from all sources.

Deputy Commissioner.-A prohibition is perhaps not necessary, but all officers at coast ports should be warned to report any such arrivals for my instructions.”

E. S.

Please cir-

On a report that we have filaria nocturna, the coast towns should adopt a policy of drainage by the dry earth system, instead of at present throwing such matter on the shore; and breeding in the fresh water they require in the mosquitos killed off by preventing them which to hatch out their eggs. The reason for the former depends on the fresh water which lies on such a shore with the drainage matter, and a second unknown factor dependent on animal and not vegetable débris where the yellow fever germ is concerned and washed in salt water.

Deputy Commissioner. calate to Bulhar and Zeyla. Local ad- ministrative officers should take steps as far as they are able.

E. 8.

These suggestions may be taken as essentially complete as up to the present. The men who are doing investigation work on this subject do not find any method of dealing with the organisms as distinguished from the fly in either of the conditions of danger to which its presence exposes us.

26588

(No. 163.)

159

No. 191.

HONG KONG.

GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN to MR. LYTTELTON.

(Received July 28, 1905.)

[Answered by No. 192.]

SIR,

Government House, Hong Kong, June 24, 1905. I HAVE the honour to enclose a copy of a letter from Dr. F. W. Clark, Principal Civil Medical Officer, on a scheme by which it has been proposed that directors should be transferred in rotation between the Bacteriological Institutes of Ceylon, the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong with an additional term of teaching work at the School of Tropical Medicine in London.

2. I am not aware whether the scheme as outlined in this letter is under your consideration, but in the event of your approving its adoption, I have the honour to report, for your information, that this Government will be glad to join in it if the conditions as to salaries, &c., are acceptable.

SIR,

(No. 118.)

Enclosure in No. 191.

I have, &c.,

M. NATHAN,

Governor.

Sanitary Board Office, June 19, 1905.

I HAVE the honour to submit, for the consideration of His Excellency the Governor, the outline of a scheme which was propounded by Sir Patrick Manson at a dinner recently held in London on behalf of the London School of Tropical Medicine.

It amounts merely to a development of the present scheme governing the appoint- ment of a director of the Bacteriological laboratory of the Straits Settlements (at Kuala Lumpor), which is, that the medical tutor at the London School of Tropical Medicine shall do three years research work at Kuala Lumpor, and then three years teaching work in London. It is now proposed to bring Ceylon and Hong Kong into this scheme, so that each director would do three years in Hong Kong, three years in Kuala Lumpor, three years in Ceylon and three years in London, with intervals for leave, of course.

These officers would not, I presume, be on the permanent staff, but would be under agreements with the respective Governments, while a certain amount of continuity and provision for routine duties during leave would be provided for by a permanent assistant at each place.

I think that the scheme is an admirable one, and well calculated to produce the best results in the matter both of research work and of teaching, and should His Excellency approve generally, I would suggest that, in the first instance, infor- mation might be obtained from the Government of the Straits Settlements as to the terms of the agreement between that Government and the London School of Tropical Medicine in respect of their laboratory at Kuala Lumpor.

I have, &c.,

I have, &c.,

A. J. M. PAGET,

Senior Medical Officer.

To His Majesty's Acting Deputy Commissioner

for His Majesty's Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief.

FRANCIS W. CLARK, Principal Civil Medical Officer.

(Please see page 1,105 of "The British Medical Journal," of the 20th May, 1905.) The Honourable