AJA SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



the feeble-minded, four for venereal diseases and five leper insti- 

 tutions. 



For research the centre is the South African Institute for Medical 

 Research at Johannesburg. The subjects investigated here include 

 plague and its spread by infected wild rodents, the silicosis of gold- 

 mining, tuberculosis in natives, pneumonia, meningitis, other bac- 

 terial diseases, and tumour formation and growth. The institute 

 has also a field research station at Eshowe in Zululand, Natal, for 

 the study of malaria vectors. The expenditure on the institute for 

 the vear 1935-6 was £70,013. The University of Witwatersrand 

 Medical School, which works in close association with this insti- 

 tute, though primarily a teaching centre, has also a research 

 branch. The Department of Public Health has initiated research 

 into various matters; for example it arranged for Professor Swellen- 

 grebel to organize a malaria investigation v/hich was started in 

 1930 and is being continued by officials of the Union Health 

 Department which has a research station at Tzaneen in the Trans- 

 vaal; close co-operation is maintained with the similar research 

 being done by the South African Institute for Medical Research. 



The Research Grant Board of the Union, instituted in 191 8, 

 advises the government on medical and other research and adminis- 

 ters all government grants in aid. The Carnegie Corporation of 

 New York provides additional funds and advises on their distribu- 

 tion. Private practice has reached such a stage in the Union that 

 many doctors have their own laboratories for the examination of 

 pathological and other specimens; and recently a South African 

 Association of Private Laboratories has been inaugurated to pro- 

 mote co-operation and to encourage such valuable research work as 

 that of Dr. A. Pijper on the typhus-like diseases in Southern Africa. 



In South-West Africa the health service includes the Medical 

 Officer of the Administration, stationed at Windhoek, one whole- 

 time and fourteen part-time district surgeons appointed on the 

 same basis as in the Union of South Africa. There are five state- 

 aided hospitals entirely for Europeans, three Roman Catholic 

 mission hospitals for Europeans and natives; hospitals or medical 

 stations are also maintained by the Finnish, Anglican, and 

 Rhenish missions. There are also one or two private nursing 

 homes at Windhoek. Apart from the work of missions and 



