668 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



very merry. He ordered all the Europeans in the Colony to take quinine 

 regularly and nearly poisoned himself twice a week with a large dose in order 

 to set an example. Counselled by his able Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Henry 

 Strachan, he took up my teaching with enthusiasm and wide understanding ; 

 and next year accompanied me to Ismailia on the Suez Canal, where the 

 first and most striking success of " mosquito-reduction " was obtained. I 

 remember that when we were at Cairo he wished to buy a genuine ancient 

 scarab. A dealer showed him a number on a tray ; but he took up one of 

 them and exclaimed, " How very odd ! Is this a genuine scarab ? Why, 

 it is made of a kind of stone which is found only in Australia 1 " 



Unfortunately, Sir William's health broke down in Lagos, and he was 

 promoted to Newfoundland. But he always helped me with his influence, 

 and when he went to Australia he founded the Queensland Institute of 

 Tropical Medicine there. Owing to him and to Colonel Seely I was at last 

 made a member of certain medical committees of the Colonial Office, from 

 which my friends had hitherto taken care to exclude me ; but I resigned 

 them later for the reason given in Science Progress for July 1916, p. 147. 

 He also endeavoured to obtain a Colonial Governorship for me, so that I 

 might give effect to my sanitary methods— of course, without avail. He 

 was keen to become a kind of Imperial Sanitary Commissioner for malaria 

 after his retirement from Queensland. I saw him frequently before he 

 died ; and we concluded that we had done what we could, that our great 

 schemes were beyond the vision of poor Mr. John Mule, and that the future 

 of malaria prevention had now become a part of ordinary sanitary work and 

 must be left to the competence or incompetence of local authorities. Some 

 advances are now being made, but not a tenth of what ought to be done. 

 I have just received a report on the subject regarding Freetown, Sierra 

 Leone, where I taught them exactly what to do in 1899 — and we call our- 

 selves a civilised nation ! To learn what fools men may be, show them how 

 to save their own lives. 



In the whole of this work the British medical profession has given prac- 

 tically no help at all. Dominated by persons of small consequence, it pos- 

 sesses little power or influence in the country and fails to insist upon neces- 

 sary reforms. Thus Laveran's discovery of the microscopic parasite of 

 malaria was neglected as a means of routine diagnosis for twenty years ; 

 and even to-day thousands of soldiers suffering from the disease have often 

 to be treated by doctors who have never been properly instructed about it, 

 and who, apparently, seldom read the literature. In my opinion medical 

 degrees and diplomas should be renewable by examination every ten years 

 or so. Sir William MacGregor was, I think, the only high British official 

 who ever grasped the real importance and signification of the general anti- 

 malaria scheme which I proposed in 1899. 



The fact that malaria is carried by mosquitoes is one of prime importance 

 for civilisation, now and hereafter ; and we should have expected that an 

 empire which always lauds itself for its humaneness and practical good sense 

 would have done more to utilise it. Moreover, the empire paid nothing for 

 the discovery in the making and has hitherto refused to pay anything for 

 the boon when it was obtained — see Science Progress, January 1914, and 

 October 19 15. Altogether a melancholy picture of incompetence and in- 

 gratitude. More noble, therefore, by contrast, that figure of the last of the 

 medical Governors. 



