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duration of 3.4 days among native officers. From January ist to 

 May 23rd the figures have been 15 European cases of an average 

 duration of 7.5 days, against 47 native cases averaging 3.38 days. 

 This gives a total of 94 European cases and 196 native cases. 



Recently no fresh case had occurred in Lagos for nearly a month. 

 Then one case presented itself, and that one case occurred as oppor- 

 tunely for the malaria doctrine as if it had been made to order, for it 

 was in the person of an officer on whom quinine produced its evil 

 effects in an aggravated form, so that he could not take it as a pre- 

 ventive. As a symmetrical demonstration of the theory a second 

 officer that shared the same quarters should have contracted the con- 

 tagion from the first one, for the quarters were full of mosquitoes. 

 But he took much quinine and escaped, thereby illustrating the already 

 proved value of quinine as a preventive. 



The great difficulty is how to extend this preventive treatment 

 beyond the service, more particularly to the uneducated masses of the 

 natives. It is simply impossible to protect the whole population by 

 quinine administered as a prophylactic. In the first place, the great 

 mass of natives would not take the medicine ; and, in the second 

 place, the Government could not afford to pay for the 70 tons of 

 quinine a year that would be required to give even a daily grain dose 

 to each of 3,000,000 of people. Quinine as a preventive will not at 

 present be given to natives outside of the town of Lagos. A special 

 vote of ^500 has been made for the purchase of this medicine for this 

 particular purpose. A public dispensary already exists in the town, 

 at some distance from the general hospital. At this dispensary be- 

 tween 2,000 and 3,000 patients are treated annually. A second 

 dispensary is being constructed in Lagos, and a third one at the 

 suburb of Ebute Metta. It was felt that this, and the appointment of 

 a special medical officer to attend the poorer natives, would still fail 

 to reach a large number of the indigent and more ignorant. To take 

 up this work a large number of the educated ladies of Lagos have 

 formed themselves into a league, chiefly for the purpose of administer- 

 ing quinine to native children and others suffering from or specially 

 exposed to fever. These ladies are natives of West Africa, but many 

 of them have been well educated in England. It is hoped that they 

 may be able to induce many natives to take quinine that otherwise 

 would simply refuse it. The league is at least an important educa- 

 tional institution. 



