r-^o SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



7. Knowledge of African food supplies, and the possibility of 

 improving them, is still very inadequate. 



The provision of facilities outlined above appears to be more 

 advanced in those territories under indirect rule. In Uganda 

 a system of sub-dispensaries is already established; it has been 

 described authoritatively by W. L. Webb (1934) and will serve 

 as an example. Each sub-dispensary is a unit situated amongst 

 a rural population in charge of a trained native attendant and 

 supervised at regular intervals by a medical officer. Curative 

 measures are first introduced, then preventive measures such as 

 vaccination and inoculation; and when native interest is well 

 aroused health propaganda is undertaken. 



Infant mortahty in most parts of Africa is very high; recent 

 published estimates range from 100 to 500 per 1,000 live births. 

 This has made the development of maternity and child welfare 

 clinics a question of great importance. The great decrease in 

 infant mortality in England was due to the improvement of general 

 hy^ne, and the establishment of infant consultation clinics. This 

 increase however, has been counterbalanced by artificial birth 

 control. The adoption of contraceptive methods by Africans is 

 unlikely to become general in the near future, so that pressure of 

 population in congested areas is a development which must be 

 reckoned with as infant mortality is reduced. 



Mrs. McD. Hendrie has pointed out, on the basis of experience 

 in the Gambia and Gold Coast, that the common belief that 

 native women have little trouble during pregnancy and parturi- 

 tion is entirely unfounded. Numerous complications occur, most 

 of which are caused or accentuated by disease, especially malaria, 

 intestinal worms, and venereal diseases, and some by the im- 

 patience of native midwives. During the ante-natal period women 

 are very ready to attend clinics and dispensaries, but as soon as 

 labour commences they prefer to be among their own people, so 

 that the provision of medical assistance becomes more difficult. 

 The period of nursing, which among many African people extends 

 to two or three years, is again a time when advice is readily taken 

 by mothers, and is a time moreover when deficiencies in diet 

 come into particular prominence. Many tribes attempt to make 

 good these deficiencies by eating such materials as salt-containing 



