Presidential Address. ii 



certain defects in our military organisation, or at least shewn certain 

 directions in which improvements might be effected. 



To us in South Africa, being, as we are, a comparatively )mall 

 and sparsely scattered white community, living alongside an alien 

 and uncivilised race, which in some districts greatly outnumbers us. 

 the subject is of paramount importance, and consequently I do not 

 feel called upon to offer any excuse for bringing it to your notice, 

 the more so that I am strongly of opinion that it has not received 

 in the past that attention and recognition, from a scientific stand- 

 point, which its undoubted importance would seem to merit. 



The Commander, deeply engrossed in placing as many of the 

 enemy as posible hors de combat, and at the same time in protecting 

 his own forces from the bullets of his opponents, is apt to forget 

 that there may be a much more deadly peril — disease — lurking in 

 his own lines, and that no effort should be spared in grappling with 

 this danger should it, as it not infrequently does, assail his ranks ; 

 or, what is perhaps of far more importance, he should see to it that 

 those who are qualified to do so, are afforded every facility to enable 

 them — as far as possible — to prevent disease obtaining a lodgment 

 therein. 



As I have on a former occasion stated from this platform (and 

 the statement will bear repetition), it is an undoubted fact that in 

 protracted campaigns the losses from disease have been infinitely 

 greater than from casualities sustained in action, and although 

 matters have vastly improved in this respect in recent times, the deaths 

 per thousand during the Anglo-Boer War were 69 from disease, as 

 compared with 42 from wounds ; or, putting the matter in another 

 light, 450,000 troops were treated in hospital for disease during the 

 war, and 14,800 deaths occurred ; w"hile the admissions from wounds 

 received in action were only 22,000 in all ; but what is of more 

 interest and importance, from a scientific standpoint, no less than 

 74,000 cases were admitted to hospital suffering from preventible 

 disease, and 9,200 of these proved fatal. 



I have endeavoured to obtain the statistics relating to the Cape 

 Wars of 1877-79, and the Basuto War of 1880-81, but have failed 

 to trace them. In the Bechuanaland Expedition, however, of 1896-97, 

 with a strength of 2,326, I find that 10 deaths occurred as a result 

 of disease, the nature of which, however, is not stated, while 17 

 were killed, or died as the result of wounds. 



It is hardly fair to compare small matters with large, and I trust 

 I may not be considered egotistical in mentioning that during the 

 recent native rebellion in Natal, extending as it did over a period 

 of nine months, and with an approximate average of 2,125 troops 

 on the field — the largest number at any one time being about 6.000 

 - — we had only two deaths from ordinary disease, as against 23 killed, 

 or died from wounds received in action ; and not a single death had 

 to be recorded from a preventible disease. I am far from affirming 

 that this undoubtedly satisfactory condition is to be attributed to 

 measures adopted on scientific principles, although the medical officers 



