510 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



should be admitted from outside the Union, and loans should be 

 provided from native funds to assist them to take the full course. 

 It was recommended also that provision for training of health 

 assistants and nurse-midwives should be made immediately, in 

 addition to that of doctors. Although these recommendations have 

 not been put into effect as they stand, a start was made in 1935 

 with the training of medical aids at the South African Native 

 College at Fort Hare. This consists of a three-year course pre- 

 ceded by a preparatory year's training in science, and followed 

 by a year's practical hospital and public health training in Durban. 

 Although the courses bear some resemblance to those at Mulago 

 and Yaba medical schools, it is emphasized that they are in no way 

 comparable with those of the non-native medical students. The 

 medical aid in South Africa is not designed to replace existing 

 doctors, but to supplement the work of district surgeons in the 

 outlying native areas, where the services of the ordinary medical 

 man are seldom available. It is, in fact, believed that the employ- 

 ment of medical aids will tend to increase rather than decrease 

 the work of the ordinary practitioner. The training is devised 

 with a view to certain definite duties, which include preventive 

 work, first-aid treatment of illnesses and injuries and the prepara- 

 tion of smears for the diagnosis of such diseases as malaria, leprosy, 

 and tuberculosis. The training for the preparatory year was started 

 in 1935 and the first batch of medical aids should come into 

 service in 1940. 



In the Belgian Congo, the advanced training of Africans as 

 medical assistants or auxiliary doctors similar to those produced 

 at Dakar, Yaba, and Mulago, is recognized as a necessity, and 

 accordingly, a medical school was founded at Leopoldville in 

 1936. The course consists of four years' practical and theoretical 

 work, followed by two years' qualifying at a hospital under full 

 supervision. It is considered that, although a good education is 

 necessary before entrance to this school, it is more important to 

 give the future medical assistant a good moral grounding. 



J^URSES AND OTHER SUBORDINATE STAFF 



For the training of African personnel of lower standard than 

 auxiliary doctors, each territory has adopted its own system to 



