SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 319 



they serve. A national board of health must first supply the na- 

 tional need proven to exist, by the conjoined efforts of the efficiently 

 organized State boards, and fill up the full measure of that work 

 within the national boundaries. So established, in the same dig- 

 nified relation to the National Government that such State boards 

 bear to the governments of the several States, it is prepared to 

 perform the twofold duty, beyond our borders, which results from 

 our present knowledge of the modes of approach and attack of in- 

 fectious diseases. It must protect the nation, first, by a thorough 

 knowledge of the character, location, and movements of such 

 diseases abroad ; second, by preventing, by the best-known methods, 

 the shipping to this country of infected persons, animals, or 

 things ; third, by insisting upon competent sanitary service on 

 board ship, with the best facilities for preventing, controlling, and 

 crushing out any form of infection discovered on the passage out ; 

 fourth, by providing that the sanitary authority at the port of 

 entry shall be fully informed of what is known of the sanitary 

 history of the ship and her lading, up to the date of arrival, with 

 later telegraphic report from the American consul and health- 

 officer at the port of departure, if necessary. 



" It is a fact that to-day, if it will, our government may learn all 

 that is here proposed, by locating competent health-officers at the 

 foreign shipping ports, whence our greatest danger comes, and 

 might keep the seaboard quarantine authorities fully posted in 

 these important particulars. As to those local authorities, it is 

 time to call a halt in the criticism of their work till all sides in the 

 controversy can be heard; or, better still, till health-officers of in- 

 land States can visit and see for themselves. Until the State 

 boards agree in organization and powers, and in proper relations 

 to local boards, the re-organization of the National Health Service 

 upon a sufficient and permanent basis will be difficult, if not im- 

 possible." 



THE RESOURCES OF THE NYASSA REGION, EAST 

 COAST OF AFRICA. 



For a number of years two English companies have been carry- 

 ing on a profitable trade in the Nyassa and Tanganyika region, 

 which, however, has recently suffered a severe check by the upris- 

 ing of the Arabs against European influence. In a recent number 

 of the Journal of the Matichester Geographical Society, Messrs. 

 James Stevenson and E. O'Neill, consul of this district, give some 

 interesting reports on the state of affairs and on the resources of 

 this country, from which, and from some observations of other 

 travellers, we take the following notes. Mr. Stevenson's paper is 

 accompanied by an interesting sketch-map, reproduced here, show- 

 ing the e.xlent of the ravages of the slave-trade and the caravan 

 routes in this region. The map will be of interest as supplement- 

 ing the general map of Africa showing the extent of the slave- 

 trade, published in Science of Dec. 28, 1888. 



The produce of the Nyassa region, and the methods of trading, 

 are well described by Mr. O'Neill. First in importance among the 

 objects of trade is ivory. To this most valuable of all exports, — 

 putting aside for the present any possible supply of minerals, — 

 trade must chiefly look for an immediate return on its capital. 

 Perhaps there are no better elephant-hunting fields in Central Af- 

 rica than the great marshes of the Shire River and on the west 

 coast of Lake Nyassa. The supply from these might be largely in- 

 creased, to the benefit of trade, the country, and the people generally. 

 The Arab slave-dealer is the chief collector of ivory in this country, 

 with the tusks of which he loads his slaves, obtaining thereby 

 cheap and profitable carriage to the coast. The British trader 

 upon the Nyassa obtains but a fraction of the whole amount col- 

 lected, — just so much as the Arab chooses to part with to enable 

 himself to renew his supply of barter-goods, and to resume his 

 collection in the interior. While the operations of the British 

 trader on the Nj'assa are confined to his station on the shores 

 of the lake, he plays the dignified rdle of a storekeeper to Arab 

 traders, where they may renew their store, and be relieved of a 

 journey to the coast. 



Much has been said of the check given to the slave-trade by the 

 taking-up of the ivory on the Nyassa from the hands of the Arab 

 collector, thus obviating the necessity for slave- carriage to the 



coast. But it is certain that a very slight blow is struck by this 

 means at the slave-trade. Little good will really be effected until 

 the collection in the interior is also carried out by the whites, 

 and the Arab trader is undersold, and thus peacefully ousted 

 from the collecting-field. The British trader has every advantage 

 on his side. Water-carriage should place his goods upon the Ny- 

 assa cheaper than they can be carried there overland by the Arabs, 

 who have also to contend with the high percentage exacted from 

 them for advances by the Indian trader of Zanzibar or Mozam- 

 bique. 



Next in importance to ivory must be placed India-rubber, in 

 which the country west of Nyassa, stretching towards Lake Bang- 

 weolo, is undeniably rich ; but comparatively little is collected, as 

 the natives know little of the value of the plant, and have never 

 been taught to collect it. Its export might probably be indefinitely 

 increased by the same means which would help to extend the 

 ivory-trade. 



There are many other products indigenous to the country, but 

 few of those known are able to bear the. present cost of carriage to 



r 1 Louiifry /laraistS fy 



the markets. When the country comes to be better known, the 

 number of more valuable products will be undoubtedly increased. 

 Consul O'Neill says in regard to this point : " How completely 

 valuable products may remain hidden until some chance brings 

 them to light, I can instance by the case of Strophantus Kombe, 

 of which some specimens were sent by me to the Foreign Office in 

 1881. A demand for it as a drug for heart-disease shortly after 

 sprung up, and, its existence in this country having been thus 

 proved, I was able to start its collection in the Shire and Nyassa 

 districts and in the Gaza country. The first consignment home 

 proved to be so valuable to the collectors, that soon a rush was 

 made to collect it, and the natives were quickly taught to bring 

 down the pods in large loads. In the same manner we may hope 

 other valuable products will come to light, and more profitable ex- 

 ports found than the oil-seeds which now form the staple articles 

 of production on the coast and the lower Zambezi and Shire Riv- 

 ers." 



To estimate justly the probable development of this region, it 

 must be remembered how slow and gradual has been the development 

 of trade on the African coast. When the British Indian traders, to 

 whom, a little more than a century ago, the Portuguese viceroy of 

 India granted a monopoly of the trade of East Africa, arrived on 



