Papers relating to the investigation of malaria and other tropical diseases and the establishment of schools of tropical medicine.
- Colonial Office
- Date:
- 1903
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Papers relating to the investigation of malaria and other tropical diseases and the establishment of schools of tropical medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![of cases, probably in all cases, the organism is introduced into the blood, and thus the disease contracted, by the bite of a mosquito, generally, if not always, one species oi? other of the genus known as anopheles, and practical suggestions were made for the prevention of mosquito bites, e.g., by the use of thin meshed gauzes for dwelling houses ; by avoiding sleeping or living near native huts or other haunts of malaria-infected anopheles ; and by taking measures directed towards the extirpation of these insects, such as filling up pools and puddles which are their common breeding places. 34. On the following 20th April, 1901, I addressed another circular despatch to the Colonies embodying the recommendations of a Committee appointed to consider what practical suggestions, if any, could be made to the Governors and Administrators of the different tropical Colonies and Dependencies with a view to diminishing the risk from malaria to health and life, more especially in the case of Government officials. 35. The appointment of this Committee was due to a letter from Dr. Manson to the Colonial Office, dated 24th September, 1900, in which he wrote that the experiments based on the mosquito malaria theory, which have been instituted by representatives of the Colonial Office and the London School of Tropical Medicine, have reached such a stage and have proved so successful that I venture to submit that the time has come for energetic practical action based on this theory. He made various suggestions, in which Lord Lister and Sir M. Foster expressed general concurrence, one being that a small Committee of experienced Colonial Officials then in England should be constituted to frame regulations on the lines which he sketched out. Accordingly such a (Committee was formed, under Lord Onslow's chairmanship, and their recommendations, as embodied in my circular, referred to such matters as choice of sites for buildings, use of wire gauze and mosquito nets, and giving publicity to a large poster with diagrams on Malaria, its cause and prevention, which Dr. Manson was good enough to prepare, and copies of which formed an enclosure to the despatch. 1 abstained from offering any opinion myself on the suggestions, not having the requisite professional or local knowledge ; but I invited expressions of their views from the various Governors, and have of course left them to use their discretion, with the guidance of the medical men on the spot, as to what exact steps might be taken and how far the results of the recent experiments could be usefully adopted. 3fi. In West Africa, to which I may more specially refer, strong efforts have been - made under the guidance of the Liverpool expeditions to extirpate the malaria-bearing mosquitoes in townships, as at Bathurst in the Gambia and Freetown in Sierra Leone. These o})erations have entailed a considerable expenditure upon the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and also upon the local Governments, who are now incurring still farther expense in carrying on the work already begun. The Sierra Leone Government is also incurring expenditure amounting to upwards of £30,000 in the construction of a railway to the hills in the neighbourhood of Free- town, with the special object of providing healthy sites on higher ground, removed from the centre of native population. On the Gold Coast a definite scheme of sanitary organisation and improvement has been drawn up for Cape Coast, the most unhealthy town of the colony, on the basis of a report by Dr. Logan Taylor, of the Liverpool School, and is being carried into effect as opportunity offers. The town of Secondee has been laid out by the Government on modern lines, the European quarter being kept distinct from the native, with a view to diminishing the risk of infection from Malaria. Tanks under Government con- trol have been made mosquito-proof, wells have been covered, and all pools which form the breeding places of mosquitoes are being filled in, as far as practicable. In Lagos Sir W. MacGregor has taken active and personal interest in the problem of combating malaria, and has adopted such practical measures for reducing the unheallhi- ness of the Colony as filling up swam.ps and pools on the island, and on the mainland in the neighbourhood of the railway, providing mosquito-proof houses, ])urifying wells and supplying rainwater tanks, spreading knowledge of elementary hygiene among the natives by means of lectures delivered by medical officers, and estal)li.shing dispensaries and out-stations for the distribution of quinine. In Southern Nigeria steps have been taken, with considerable success, to improve the sanitation of Akassa, in accordance with the suggestions made by Dr. Annett, of the Li\crpool School. A scheme has also been recently initiated for establishing](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24398378_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
