HEALTH AND MEDICINE — GENERAL 463 



subjects involved. This chapter is concerned primarily with sys- 

 tems of organization of services, the next with diseases, and Chap- 

 ter XVII with general questions such as rural hygiene, vital 

 statistics, and nutrition. 



ORGANIZATION 



INTERNATIONAL 



International work in health and medicine is more fully organ- 

 ized and more important to Africa than in other scientific subjects, 

 and must be considered before work in the separate dependencies 

 is described. The two principal co-ordinating bodies are the Office 

 International d'Hygiene Publique in Paris, and the Health Sec- 

 tion of the League of Nations centred at Geneva. 



The Office International d'Hygiene Publique, created under the 

 Rome Agreement of 1907, has an official (governmental) perma- 

 nent committee representing fifty-three nations and including 

 delegates from a number of African territories, with a secretariat 

 in Paris. Its total cost has been in the neighbourhood of /^22,ooo 

 per annum, of which some £9,000 is spent on staff. Its activities 

 cover a wide field, but are concerned primarily with the preven- 

 tion of particular infectious diseases by international sanitary con- 

 ventions. That of 1926 dealt with several formidable epidemic 

 diseases, and more recently the International Convention for the 

 Sanitary Control of Aerial Navigation of 1933 is of special sig- 

 nificance for Africa in view of the danger of diseases such as yellow 

 fever, which are endemic in one part of the continent, spreading 

 to other parts. 



The Health Section of the League of Nations is more recent in origin. 

 Article 23 of the Covenant provides that 'Subject to and in accor- 

 dance with the provisions of international conventions existing or 

 hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of the League . . . will 

 endeavour to take steps in matters of international concern for 

 the prevention and control of disease.' Under this power a health 

 organization was created in 1923 which now consists of a General 

 Advisory Health Council (which has the same membership as the 

 Committee of the Office International d'Hygiene Publique), a 

 Standing Health Committee, and a Health Section of the League 



