566 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



area studied, and all bring out the essential facts mentioned above. 

 With the detailed figures collected, the birth, death, and infant 

 mortality rates have been worked out for the several districts 

 under the FOREAMI, in a way which shows clearly where health 

 work is most required. 



These observations have now been carried out over a period 

 of several years which makes it possible to estimate changes in 

 the population. The general opinion has been that the native 

 population of the Congo is decreasing and that steps taken by the 

 Government are not sufficient to arrest it; but the figures for the 

 Bas Congo in FOREAMI records show a successive increase as 

 follows: in 1932 the increase was 17*3 per cent, in 1933 21*4 per 

 cent, and in 1934 19*8 per cent, the lower figure for 1934 being 

 due to an epidemic of bacillary dysentery. The conclusion reached 

 is that the population is increasing quite rapidly, largely as a 

 result of medical aid. 



In the mandated area of Ruanda-Urundi the Belgian authorities 

 have also undertaken a medical census, particularly with a view 

 to determining infant mortality. By 1935 in Ruanda 1,279,096 

 people out of a total estimated population of 1,685,283 had been 

 individually registered, and in Urundi 219,856 out of an estimated 

 total of 1,700,300. For the purposes of reckoning infant mortality 

 the areas studied were divided into three groups according to the 

 degree of European influence; these were agriculturists, persons 

 in close proximity to missions or plantations, and Christians. In 

 the most primitive regions the infant mortality rate was calculated 

 to be 100 per thousand, which compares very favourably with 

 many other parts of Africa. The systems of sleeping sickness 

 inspection in the Belgian Congo have also produced useful infor- 

 mation, since every individual examined is recorded in regard to 

 sex, age, profession, and medical details. 



For the French territories some of the results published in the 

 annual reports on the Cameroons and Togoland to the Mandates 

 Commission fall into the category of special medical studies. For 

 the Cameroons a series of maps and graphs shows the relative 

 importance of principal diseases in different parts of the territory. 

 There are data also for the sex-ratio, which show results rather 

 different from the Belgian work mentioned above. Thus there is 



