324 MEDICAL NEEDS OF THE NATIVES. 



medica, pharmacy, medicine, surgery, midwifery, ancl hygiene. 

 Three types of medical helpers for natives should be aimed at — • 



1. Male and female native nurses. 



2. Hospital assistants. 



3. Assistant surgecnis. 



In conclusion, I may quote from a letter sent to me by the 

 Ven. Archdeacon Johnson, the doyen of missionaries in Zulu- 

 land: " May I express a hope that your committee [i-c, of the 

 Natal Native Affairs Relform Association] is prepared to fight a 

 long, long fight for this important matter. I am an old man 

 now, and I have lived my life amongst the natives, and I say 

 with knowledge that the root <>f most of the sin, the ignorant, 

 cruel barbarism of the Zulu native, is the so-called native doctor; 

 lie is also the great instigator and inciter to rebellion and revolt. 

 Any committee of men persistent and strong enough to go on 

 v,'orking and agitating until Cjovcrnment be moved to abolish the 

 ])iesent system of giving licences to this crowd of charlatans, and 

 substitute trained, educated natives with a knowledge oif anatomy 

 and medicine, will be doing the native people a service that will 

 l)c difificult to exceed. 



In the hope that Section E of the South African Association 

 for the Advancement of Science will join forces with those " per- 

 sistent and strong " committees already at work on this matter. 

 I close mv remarks. 



Epidemic Catarrhal Fever —According to Nature 

 of July i8th, 1918, the " prevailing epidemic of so-called in- 

 fluenza " was then widespread both in the British Isles and on 

 the continent of Europe. The most striking symptoms were 

 said to be the sudden onset of the disease, with chills, headache, 

 ])ain in the neck, back, loins, and limbs, with general malaise, 

 accompanied by fever ranging from 102° to 105° F., and generally 

 disappearing almost suddenly on the third or fourth day of 

 attack, after which rapid convalescence ensues. The Lancet 

 (July 13th. 1918, p. 34) suggests that the disease be referred to 

 as " catarrhal 'fever," ;md the differences between it and influenza 

 are j>ointed out. Influenza is caused by Pfeift'er's bacillus, a 

 minute rod-shaped microbe which abounds in the bronchial secre- 

 tion. On the other hand, investigation of a number of cases of 

 the present disease seems to have demonstrated the entire absence 

 of the influenza bacillus, while a diplococcus was so constantly 

 present in the naso-pharynx, throat, and sputum that the investi- 

 gators, Captains Little. Garofalo, and Williams tentatively re- 

 garded this as being the cause of the disease. " On the whole," 

 says Nafnre. " the disease (catarrhal fever) is (|uite mild and 

 imattended with complications. It differs from the true influenza, 

 which was so prevalent in 1889 and the early nineties, by being 

 milder and of shorter duration, and by the rapid convalescence. 



