SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 13 



museum of human remains and relics, which we call the continent of 

 Africa. 



I pass on to Medical Science. I have referred already to the contri- 

 butions to the study of the problems of industrial medicine and hygiene 

 which the special circumstances of the South African gold mining industry 

 have made possible. Those contributions have, we may well hope, but 

 prepared the way for advances of a revolutionary character in the early 

 detection, prevention, and treatment of all forms of respiratory disease. 

 But even greater are the opportunities which the continent of Africa 

 offers for the study of tropical diseases, of which it may well be described 

 as the homeland. In Africa there have been and necessarily must be 

 studied the problems connected with malaria, blackwater fever, sleeping 

 sickness, yellow fever, and many other scourges of civilisation, and from 

 Africa there may well come hope and healing for mankind. There are 

 other problems of Medical Science for the study of which Africa is imiquely 

 fitted. There are the physiological questions, important also from the 

 political point of view, which bear on the fitness of the white races to 

 maintain a healthy existence in tropical surroundings, at high altitudes, 

 and in excessive sunlight. For these investigations the diversity of 

 conditions prevailing in the various regions of the African continent make 

 it a magnificent natural laboratory. There is the elucidation of the 

 factors which account for the varying susceptibility of white and coloured 

 races to acute infectious diseases, tuberculosis, and certain types of 

 malignant disease, together with the light which such elucidation may 

 throw on the physical and chemical composition of the human body. 

 Lastly, I would mention the exploration of that most interesting border- 

 land between Psychiatry and Psychological Science by an analysis of the 

 mentality of the diverse African peoples. That investigation has an 

 important bearing not only on the limitations and capacities of racial 

 intelligence, but also on the methods which the ruling races in Africa 

 should follow in seeking to discharge their obligations towards their 

 uncivilised and unenhghtened fellow- Africans. 



Closely linked with Medical Science is the study of Animal Biology. 

 In some instances the problems of the two branches of Science are to be 

 approached along parallel lines ; in others biological investigations are 

 fundamental to the growth of Medical Science ; of no less significance is 

 that unity which there is in nature, making it possible for the truths of 

 Animal Biology to be translated into facts concerning mankind. In the 

 African continent there is no lack of opportunity to advance Science by 



