98 
The medical mission in the Island of Principe has now beaten 
the record of success. The result of this mission may be con- 
sidered a real triumph of science against a terrible scourge— 
sleeping sickness. Special reference must be made to this 
mission working at present in the Island of Principe and 
directed by Dr. B. Costa, a former pupil of the Lisbon School 
of Tropical Medicine. The first report presented by the doctor 
to the Government shows us the difficulties of the fight against 
this grave malady. According to the latest information, not 
hitherto published, supplied by Doctors Costa and F. Sant’- 
Anna, the success of the mission is complete. Sleeping sick- 
ness was ravaging the negro population and the mortality was 
frightful; the island was becoming depopulated and the agricul- 
tural estates were almost abandoned. The European colonists 
saw all their efforts wasted. The intervention of the Govern- 
ment was not long in coming. A “fight to a finish ’’ became 
necessary, but the terror of the white residents was not 
sufficiently great for them to submit to the measures ordered 
by the first chief of the mission, Dr. C. Mendes. A new out- 
break of the disease rendered the danger still more serious. 
The Government then resolved to give full administrative 
powers to Dr. B. Costa. This doctor set to work somewhat 
rigorously, but he has succeeded well. At the present time 
there are no Glossina in the Island of Principe, and no sleeping 
sickness. This is undoubtedly a real triumph for the doctors. 
They have caused agriculture to revive; the almost abandoned 
estates have been newly planted, and well-being is spreading 
everywhere. All the Europeans bless to-day the war on the 
Glossina, the segregation of the diseased, and the rigour of the 
hygienic measures. 
Dr. Harrorp (Principal, Livingstone College, Leyton): Mr. 
Chairman—I should like to emphasize the very great impor- 
tance to those who are concerned with tropical estates of 
dealing with this question of Tropical Hygiene, and with you, 
Sir, in the chair, I am sure that the matter ought to be impressed 
very earnestly upon the Congress; because it is owing to you, 
Sir, that such wonderful changes have taken place as have been 
just described by Mr. Evans. I should like to say that, in 
addition to the measures that ought to be taken for dealing with 
mosquitoes, I think it is of the utmost importance that the ques- 
tion of quinine prophylaxis should be remembered in the case of 
labourers who have come into regions and have been infected, 
or in cases where the reduction in the number of mosquitoes 
has not been able entirely to keep down the spread of malaria. 
But I specially rose to ask to be permitted to refer to another 
matter which I think is of the utmost importance concerning 
hygiene in the tropics, and that is the question of the supply 
