February 3, 192 1 1 



NATURE 



r4« 



The London School of Tropical Medicine. 



THE London School of Tropical Medicine, which 

 in its new domicile in the Hospital for Tropical 

 Diseases in Endsleigh Gardens, Euston Road, London, 

 recently, under Royal auspices, commemorated its 

 nativity, came into being twenty-one years ago. 

 The idcn of a school emanated from Sir Patrick 



Fig. i.-~The museum, London School of Tiopical M«diciu«. 



Manson, who at the time was Medical .Adviser to the 

 ( olonial Office ; it was at once grasped by his far- 

 veing official chief, the late Right Hon. Joseph 

 Chamberlain; and it was aptly embodied forthwith 

 in the benign fabric of the Seamen's Hospital Society, 

 the solicitude of which for the brotherhood of the sea 

 includes all the tropics in its range. 



Not only did the society accept the idea, it 

 also magoiinimously advanced the 

 funds neede<l for its realisation. 

 an<l in October, l8<)q, the young 

 school was actuallv established, 

 under the aegis o^ Sir Patrick 

 \l:mson, as an .idjunct to the 

 ^ocietv's branch hospital at the 

 Albert Dock. 



The school was, above all, 

 <lfsigned to give practical training 

 in the fundamental laboratory 

 methods of investigating disease 

 while ke«.'ping the laboratory in 

 louch with the wards of the hos- 

 pital, and collating the lessons of 

 l.iboratory and clinic in set lectures 

 l>v specialists versed in the medical 

 ;inil sanitarv problems of the tropics, 

 the ultimate object Ijeing not merely 

 to teach a class how the prevalent 

 (lisfHses of tropical countries are 

 1. 1 ..^nised and treatetl, but also to 

 tr.iiii the individual man for the 

 experimental investigation of dis- 

 ease in the course of his own career 

 and field of opportunity abroad. _ It 

 was. moreover, recognised as a vital 

 nccissity that members of ihe 

 ti';i( hing staff sh<iuld go afield from time to time in 

 order to keep in touch with tropical diiicn.ses in their 

 endemic areas. 



In the early davs of the school the main laboratory 

 course was, perforce, conducted by n single whole, 

 time teacher ; but as— thanks to the powerful advocacy 

 oj Mr. Joseph Chamberlain— the financial position 



NO. 2675, VOL. 106] 



improved, additional whole-time teachers were ap- 

 pointed, a helminthologist and a protozoologist in 

 1905 and a medical entomologist in 1907, and so 

 gradually the laboratory teaching became both fuller 

 and more intensive. 



Thus prior to the war the school in its seques- 

 tered situation at the docks had 

 assumed its present stature, if 

 not its present finish. It had 

 been affiliated to London Uni- 

 versity; the practical worth of its 

 curriculum was held in world-wide 

 regard by the medical profession ; 

 its bead-roll included the names of 

 nearly two thousand students drawn 

 from every medical vocation and 

 medical service in the tropical 

 Dominions, as well as from many 

 foreign countries ; it had under- 

 taken fifteen oversea expeditions for 

 the study of specific pathological 

 problems ; and it was steadily 

 countenanced by annual grants from 

 official sources. That at this stage 

 the school had also acquired public 

 esteem outside official and profes- 

 sional circles may be inferred 

 from the benefactions for the 

 advancement of knowledge that 

 were entrusted to its administra- 

 scholarship of the annual value of 



~' ~ ' ' in 1912 



a munificent bequest of 10,000/. by Lord Wandsworth 

 was allotted by Sir William Bennett for the institu- 

 tion of a scholarship ; and in the same year a sum of 

 70,000/. was collected for general purposes by Mr. 

 .\usten Chamberlain as a filial tribute to the memory 

 of the founder. 



tion. In igtK) a 



50/. was founded by Lord and Lady ShefTield 



Fio. a.— A portlo4i of tb« cUu Uboraiory. 1 < 



"ul cf Triipioil MailiciiM. 



The \v;ir, w hich revealed so clearly to this island its 

 dumb <lcpendrnce on the unconquerable soul of tht; 

 merchant seaman, brought at its close to the .Sea- 

 men's Hospital .Society a practical expression of 

 gratitude and admiration so full as to reflect some of 

 its splendour on the swiely's Tropical School. .As a 

 tribute to the dauntless spirit maintained during the 



