28 



INTBODUCTION 



Distinguished 

 Visitors 



their work. Thanks are also due to the Editors of the British Medical Journal, Lancet, 

 Journal of Tropical Medicine and Ilyfjicnc, Journal of Hygiene, Journal of the Hoiial 

 Army Medical Corps and Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics for Iciud 

 permissiuu to reproduce papers in this Report. 



So many Sudan officials have given us kindly aid that I cannot attempt to mention 

 all of them here. I have already referred to the medical ollicors who have helped us, 

 and Dr. Beam and Mr. King make their own aclcuowleilgments. I would, however, 

 specially like to thank Captain A. L. Hadow, because, though not a medical man, he 

 has taken a great deal of trouble to secure specimens of poisonous snakes, of venom and 

 other objects of interest, while the note on venom by Sir Thomas R. Fraser, and an 

 account of " Spitting-Snakes " by Mr. Henry Curtis have already been mentioned. 

 My thanks are also due to El Kairaakam C. V. N. Percival Bey. I may state 

 here that JIajor Lyle Cummins, R.A.M.C., late of the Egyptian Medical Service, 

 has kindly acted as the Editor in England of this Report, an arrangement made by 

 Mr. Wellcome, and one which has helped me very greatly. Many of the illustrations 

 have again been entrusted to Mr. Richard Muir wliose skill requires no encomiums 

 from me. 



The laboratories have been visited by a number of persons interested in their work. 

 I have mentioned Sir David and Lady Bruce. Captain F. P. Maclde, I.M.S., followed 

 them, also on his way from Uganda. Monsieur A. Solvay, of Brussels, came and saw 

 and, as on a previous occasion, most kindly gave us a generous donation which enabled 

 us to purchase a special microscope for the chemical department and to secure some 

 books of which we had need. I only wish more visitors to Khartoum would follow 

 M. Solvay's example. Perhaps they would if they imderstood the laboratories stand, 

 in some degree, for health, and health means comfort and prosperity and a good many 

 other things which make life worth living. It is Emerson who says, " The first Wealth 

 is Health," a motto which might suitably be inscribed upon our walls and exhibited at 

 intervals to those who control our finances ! Lord Kitchener also inspected us and, with 

 his Indian experience, showed himself a keen, though happily a friendly, critic. One has 

 also to record Mr. Wellcome's return to the Sudan. Needless to say we were pleased to 

 see him, and he went fully into all matters pertaining to the laboratories, and, as ever, 

 showed much interest in their development. He had recently been in Panama, studying 

 the Sanitary Department work, and it is remarkable how many of the problems in the 

 Sudan resemble those in the Canal Zone though, of course, on an infinitely smaller scale. 

 There are, however, the same difficulties and disappointments in both places, and one 

 derives a kind of vicarious comfort from such a reflection. At tlie same time we still 

 retain the support of H.E. the Governor-General, while to Mr. Currie, to whose far-seeing 

 grasp of affairs the establishment of the laboratories was primarily due, we are more 

 than indebted. Under a less sympathetic, a less inlluential, or, I may add, less determined 

 chief I am quite certain that the development of the laboratories would more than 

 once have received a serious . check, not fi-om any hostility towards them but from a 

 lack of knowledge of their needs and a lack of appreciation of all they represent and 

 of Emerson's sound dictum. In the past, one has always concluded an Introduction by 

 considering the future, and, after eight years of experience, one has now a good idea 

 of what is and will be actually required to keep these laboratories abreast of the times. 



Requirements In our Third Report I spoke of the necessity of a new huildi 



this I will (leal 



