686 
NATURE 

gested that school medical inspection should be linked 
up with the enforced inspection of at least all males 
between the ages of sixteen and forty-five years by 
qualified defence force officers. 
In Section D one of the most attractive papers was 
undoubtedly that by Mr. E. C. Reynolds on_ the 
economics of the war, for the purpose of hearing which 
all four sections of the association combined. As at 
last year’s meeting, some of the most interesting 
papers in this section were those dealing with phases 
of the native question. Such were two papers by the 
Rey. Noel Roberts on the initiation rites of the 
Bapedi, and on the traditional history of the Bagana- 
noa. The Rev. W. A. Norton had a delightful little 
paper on African native melodies, all of which, he 
said, were in the pentatonic scale. The Rev. S. S. 
Dornan contributed a paper on Rhodesian ruins and 
native tradition. The author holds that the ruined 
towns were built by the men whose descendants still 
live in the country, and at no very distant date. The 
Rev. J. R. L. Kingon, of the United Free Church 
Mission at Tsolo, contributed a paper showing that 
native agriculture is on the threshold of a marvellous 
expansion, which only awaited the opening up of com- 
munications, towards which the Native Council had 
contributed 28,oool. during the last year. Another 
paper by the same author dealt with the economics of 
the east coast fever. Proportional representation was 
the subject of papers by Dr. J. Brown and Mr. R. 
Kilpin, and ‘‘ Problems of Physical Continuity” were 
discussed by the Rev. Dr. S. R. Welch. The Rev. C. 
Pettman contributed to this section one of his instruc- 
tive discussions of the origin of South African place- 
names, in the course of which he reviewed the com- 
monly accepted derivations of such names as Bloem- 
fontein, Algoa Bay, Walfisch Bay, and Slackhers Nek. 
Dr. E. T. Mellor gave an evening lecture on the 
gold-bearing conglomerates of the Witwatersrand, in 
which he outlined briefly his own theory of the original 
deposition of the reef conglomerates. This was to the 
effect that what is now the Witwatersrand was once 
the deltaic mouth of a river, and that the gravels were 
deposited here in beds at different times and in slightly 
different localities. The extent of this delta would be 
fairly small compared with the extent of the present 
Ganges delta. 
The most interesting function of the session was 
the award of sol. and the South Africa medal, founded 
by the British Association in 1905, for scientific re- 
search in South Africa, to Mr. C. P. Lounsbury for his 
entomological investigations. In the absence of Mr. 
Lounsbury the president, at the conclusion of his in- 
augural address, enumerated the various pieces of scien- 
tific work engaged in by the recipient since he took up 
his residence in South Africa in 189s, and presented 
the medal to Dr. C. F. Juritz, to hold in trust until 
Mr. Lounsbury’s return to the country. 
TROPICAL DISEASES: STATISTICS AND 
RESEARCH.1 
ie reviewing these reports for 1913 we directed 
attention to the ambiguity involved in the term 
“Deaths ascribed to fever.”” Strictly speaking, the term 
fever should include all disease in which fever is a 
marked feature, e.g. not only malaria, but also enteric, 
pneumonia, etc., but whether it does so here appears 
to us to be uncertain. In the Hong-Kong report the 
heading is changed to ‘‘Deaths ascribed to malarial 
fever,” and in the Straits Settlements it is subdivided 
into “unspecified fever,” ‘‘ malaria,” ‘typhoid,’ and 
‘‘dengue.” In the returns for Government hospitals 

1 Report of the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research | 
Fund for the Year 1914. (London: Wyman and Sons, Ltd.) 
NO. 2390, VOL. 95| 



[AuGUST 19, 1915 

the heading does not occur. There surely must be 
cases in hospital of fever which are not comprised in 
the four fevers scheduled. If so, they should be re- 
turned. Again, under ‘‘ Estates employing indentured 
labour” only ‘‘deaths ascribed to malaria” are re- 
turned. Surely, again, there must be many cases of 
fever which are not malaria. Why not return these 
also unless here malaria is synonymous with fever? 
This ambiguity then continues. A great advance in 
the statistics of malaria would be made if the diagnosis 
‘fever’? were not accepted as the equivalent of 
malaria. Everyone knows, for example, in India that 
‘‘thousands”’ of cases are returned as malaria on no 
better evidence than the statement of the patient that 
he is suffering from ‘‘fever’’; and so one may feel 
strong doubt as to the figures recorded in this report 
under the heading, ‘‘ Attendances for malaria.” (Why 
malaria and not “ fever ’’?) 
We repeat what we said last year, that parts of this 
statistical schedule require careful revision if it is 
to be of value. To note another statistical point. It 
cannot be too thoroughly appreciated that accurate 
population data must form the basis of practically all 
statistics of disease. Yet in the Mauritius report 
whereas the number of deaths for certain towns and 
districts is given, there is most unfortunately no corre- 
sponding population given. We might as well be 
given the number of deaths in India and Ireland and 
be left to draw our inferences without knowing the 
respective populations. 
Before leaving these matters we would refer to the 
Southern Rhodesia Report, where a chart of the mor- 
tality and distribution of malaria, blackwater fever, 
and the rainfall for 1913 is given. By itself this is of 
no great value. Had the data for the ten years 
1904-13, which appear to be available, been given, it 
is probable that definite conclusions could have been 
drawn. 
We would repeat that if these statistics are to 
be of value in the future more care must be taken in 
their compilation. It is often said that “ statistics lie.”’ 
We do not believe they do, and that they cannot if 
only we know exactly what they represent. 
Turning next to the appendices we find a variety of 
matter of much interest and importance. We may 
briefly mention some of the results. 
Kala-Asar.—It has been shown that cultures can 
be got from the blood, and the use of the method for 
diagnostic purposes is suggested; it should have been 
stated whether the case from which cultures were got 
showed parasites in the blood or not. Coccal bodies 
have been found in the organs in this disease but 
their meaning is not clear. Observations in the Sudan 
do not support the insect transmission theory of the 
disease. We have ourselves elsewhere suggested the 
hypothesis that the disease is not transmissible from 
man, but is acquired by infection with ‘‘natural” 
flagellates of some insect. 
Entomelogy.—Chrysops fixissima of Borneo appears 
to be a terrible fly. Its bite on the ear gives rise to a 
swelling like a cauliflower. 
A sand-fly larva has been found in soil in the 
Sudan. Hitherto they were thought to breed almost 
exclusively in old walls and the like. 
A long and interesting paper is devoted to the life- 
history of Dermatobia hominis, the larva of which 
burrows in the skin of man, producing ‘‘ warbles.” 
The evidence is detailed in support of the view that - 
certain mosquitoes, Janthinosoma, sp., are used by 
the cestrid for effecting this. CEstrid eggs have been 
found cemented to the abdomen of female mosquitoes, 
as the cestrid appears ‘“‘to know’’ that the males do 
not bite man. When such a female with eggs in 
position bites, the cestrid larve hatch and find their 
way into the skin. We still require complete proof 

