4 TROPICAL MEDICINE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND 



But not only has the study of tropical diseases 

 conferred an increased benefit upon the science of 

 niedichie, it has given new and undreamt-of advantages 

 to commerce, to civilisation, and to administration in 

 tropical countries. To-day we receive regular reports 

 from all parts of the tropical world showing what is 

 being accomplished— the new areas and territories 

 wrested from decay and handed over to civilisation. 

 We are furnished with regular monthly reports from 

 the Panama Canal zone, Cuba, the IMiilippines, and 

 from a host of other places, just as if they were as 

 old-established as ^lanchester or Liverpool, and had 

 always known what a medical officer and his elaborate 

 staff were. 



But not only has tropical medicine added new 

 territories to civilisation, it has quite recently taken 

 a speculati\e turn, and, in the light of what is taking 

 place in Africa to-day, surveys what may have occurred 

 in America and in Europe in past ages. Recently 

 INlajor Ross, Mr. .Jones, and Dr. A\^ithington have 

 brought forward evidence to show that JNIalaria in 

 Greece may have taken no small share in helping to 

 wipe out the old Greek civilisation. W^hat may not have 

 occurred in other countries also ? It is even surmised, 

 and not without reason, that the tsetse fly has either 

 cleared the white man out of Africa or kept him out, 

 the fly having proved, until recent times, unconquerable. 



Again, in its far-reaching and world-wide investiga- 

 tions, tropical medicine has directed oiu' attention more 

 and more to the role which insects play in the tra\is- 

 mission of disease, and, naturally, this role is 



