^12 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



at the Blantyre Mission Hospital (Church of Scotland Mission). 

 During 1935 progress was made with the training of dispensers 

 or dressers. The educational standard of the dresser has been 

 raised and no boys under standard IV are accepted. The first 

 part of the training consists of full-time work in nursing and 

 ward duties under a nursing sister, who has to sign the proba- 

 tioners' cards of proficiency before they can qualify for promotion. 

 They proceed to simple dispensing, the recognition and treatment 

 of diseases and simple clerical work. Trained African sanitary 

 inspectors are also much required, but it is held that little advance 

 can be made without special facilities in the form of additional 

 European sanitary superintendents, because the existing men have 

 so little time to devote to training (Nyasaland 1935, D.R.). 



The training of English-speaking African dispensers began in 

 Tanganyika in 1927, a nine-months' course of theoretical work fol- 

 lowed by nine months' practical hospital instruction being given. 

 This has been extended, so that the medical apprentices now pass 

 through a three-year course at Dar-es-Salaam. Revision courses 

 have been held for some years, and small text-books on the various 

 subjects in the syllabus, including elementary chemistry and 

 physics, anatomy, physiology, medicine, surgery, hygiene, etc. are 

 published. In future, candidates for this training will be required 

 to have completed one year's secondary education, including 

 elementary science and English. This course does not aim at the 

 high standard of Mulago, since it is held that the territory's most 

 pressing need 'is a large number of adequately trained natives 

 capable of diagnosing and treating ordinary minor ailments and 

 of recognizing serious cases which require to be sent to the larger 

 hospitals for treatment. They may also be required to supervise 

 the tribal dressers who work under the Native Authorities'. Several 

 have been given scholarships to Mulago, and have gone to Uganda 

 for this purpose. Training courses were instituted at Dar-es- 

 Salaam in 1 92 1 for urban sanitary inspectors, the teaching being 

 given in English; vernacular courses were added in 1925 (Tan- 

 ganyika 1927, D.R,). An experiment designed to produce a 

 subordinate staff with knowledge both of preventive and curative 

 work, has been recently set on foot in the Lake Province, where 

 sanitary inspectors are instructed in medical work at the Mwanza 



