10 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



numerous, but important, including, for instance, the mode by which 

 such diseases as Malaria, Yellow Fever, Plague, and Malta Fever 

 are spread ; also the causes of that dread disease, Sleeping Sickness, 

 the no less dreaded Indian scourge " Kala-Hazar," and the more 

 homely, at least in so far as the name is concerned — African Tick 

 Fever. 



In connexion with these diseases, various insects, including the 

 mosquito, the bug, and the flea, have attained a prominence in marked 

 contrast to the obscure position they have occupied heretofore. With 

 the information now available, the absolute stamping out in a district 

 of such diseases as Malaria and Yellow Fever, is not only possible, 

 but absolutely certain, depending mainly on two conditions, which, 

 though simple, are unfortunatelv not alwavs to be met with, viz., 

 the determination to exterminate the cause of the disease, and the 

 financial ability to undertake such measures as are necessary in con- 

 nexion therewith. In illustration of the efficacy of these measures 

 of extirpation, one has only to point to such places as Ismailia or 

 Port Swettenham, or, nearer home, the Borough of Durban, where 

 war has been waged against the anopheles in connexion with Malaria ; 

 and Havana and New Orleans, where, as a result of the eradication 

 of the Stegomyia fascicidata, or, in American parlance, " the Steg," 

 Yellow Fever has completely disappeared. Many of you will 

 remember the address delivered in this Hall by Colonel Bruce during 

 the visit of the British Association, and the lucid exposition he gave 

 as to the cause of Sleeping Sickness, but no efficient method for its 

 treatment has yet been found, although several expeditions with this 

 particular object in view have been sent out to investigate the matter 

 (the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine having taken a leading 

 part, largely, I believe, as a result of the munificence of its Chairman, 

 Sir Alfred Lewis Jones). 



Dr. Fuller, only the other day, in his presidential address to 

 the members of the Western Division of the Cape of Good Hope 

 branch of the British Medical Association, very warmly advocated 

 the establishment of a medical school for South Africa, and it is 

 hoped that the matter will receive consideration at the hands of the 

 Conference about to be appointed to deal with University matters, 

 as well as bv others specially interested in medical education, and 

 that not only will such a school become an accomplished fact, but 

 that not a few South African citizens, who have benefited so largely 

 from a financial standpoint as a result of their residence in the 

 country, following the example of Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit, 

 will see that a department connected with the investinjation of disease, 

 particularly those peculiar to or prevalent in South Africa, shall be 

 adequately endowed. 



It will be generally conceded that one of the first duties of a 

 country is to provide for its defence, and the subject is one which 

 has received a great deal of attention in the Homeland during recent 

 years, the awakened interest in such matters being doubtless due, in 

 a large measure, to recent operations in South Africa having disclosed 



