SOME OF THE PREVENTABLE DISEASES OF 
BRITISH GUIANA AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO 
PREVENT THEM. 
BY 
Dr. A. T. Ozzarp, 
Fellow (and Local Secretary), Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London. 
Of a set purpose I use the words ‘‘ What we can do to prevent them ” : because 
we so commonly are told that, when the question of adopting up-to-date methods 
of sanitation is raised, ‘‘ we have not the money to carry them out!” It is 
unfortunately fully to be admitted that we do not possess the funds necessary 
to carry out well-equipped means of dealing with sanitary problems, such as have 
been so successfully accomplished in Panama, Ismaila, and other tropical coun- 
tries ; but I maintain that we are able to do a very great deal without an extra- 
ordinary amount of expenditure. The argument that we have not the funds 
available is the favourite one on the part of the scoffers at recent successes of 
tropical research, or of those who take little or no interest in such matters and 
think it too much trouble to undertake anything out of the ordinary run. 
His late Majesty King Edward the Seventh asked at a meeting composed 
mainly of well-known medical authorities, in reference to a certain disease 
“if preventable why not prevented ?’’ The tendency of modern medicine 
undoubtedly lies in the prevention of disease : and the object of this paper is to 
endeavour to point out how certain common but widespread diseases of this 
colony may be to a great extent prevented, and ata no very alarming amount of 
expenditure. 
I will roughly divide these diseases of the colony into :— 
(a) Those mainly conveyed by water ; 
(b) those conveyed by insects ; 
(c) those conveyed by dirty and insanitary habits generally. 
Under (a) will come, of course, most bowel complaints such as Dysentery, 
Diarrhoea, Enteric Fever. 
The two most crying needs of the colony at the present day, so far as sanitation 
is concerned, are the need of a pure water supply, and an efficient method for 
the disposal of faecal matter. 
Dysentery, Diarrhoea, and Enteric Fever, are universally recognised nowadays 
to be caused in most cases by the use of impure water. With the exception of our 
two chief towns, Georgetown and New Amsterdam, the colony may be said to be 
absolutely without an adequate supply of pure water for drinking purposes! 
Even some of the best managed sugar estates do not possess a sufficient supply 
of pure water for their coolie labourers : and the majority of the villages through- 
out the colony are practically without a proper supply. I maintain that this 
should not be the case ; for there is no reason with our annual rainfall why there 
