556 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



enza frequently makes its appearance in epidemic form, affecting 

 Europeans and Africans alike. Measles , which has probably been 

 introduced recently, sometimes produces very serious symptoms 

 among the African population, who seem to have less immunity 

 than Europeans. Thus epidemics in South Africa and the mining 

 areas of Rhodesia have been a cause of alarm in recent years. 

 Dysentery, both amoebic and bacterial, is still a cause of consider- 

 able mortality. Malignant diseases exist, but it is impossible to draw 

 any conclusions as to their prevalence from the cases reported in 

 statistical returns; indeed, as native confidence in European 

 surgery increases, it is even possible that cases treated may actually 

 increase, but in this connexion, as with other diseases, actual 

 prevalence among the African population cannot be estimated. 

 The study of these diseases has been advanced in a series of 

 publications by the pathologists of Nigeria, particularly by E. C. 

 Smith and B. G. T. Elmes (1934). 



