Miscellaneous Pests. 



140 



[August, 1909. 



mosquito nets or quinine, or if the 

 Governments of such countries could be 

 persuaded to undertake suitable drain- 

 age and other measures against mosquir 

 toes, much improvement in the public 

 health was likely to accrue. 



But how precisely was such persu- 

 asion to be undertaken ? Of course I 

 do not allude to utterly barbarous 

 peoples, to areas far beyond the influ- 

 ence of civilisation — which are happily 

 shrinking in magnitude every day. I 

 allude to independent or dependent 

 States professing themselves civilised, 

 and to the numerous colonies of the 

 great civilised nations. Here we already 

 possess the requisite machinery. Such 

 States or colonies are administered by 

 Governors and Councils, and for the most 

 part possess medical and sanitary depart- 

 ments controlled by well paid Officials, 

 whose special duty is to attend to such 

 affairs. Many dependencies, moreover, 

 such as some of those of Britain, are 

 placed under the central government 

 of the nation concerned, and can be 

 influenced by it. It might be supposed, 

 then, at the period referred to, all such 

 administrations would have gladly inter- 

 ested themselves in the prevention of a 

 disease which produces so much mis- 

 chief, and of which the cause had been 

 so clearly elucidated ; tha t they would 

 at once have set about collecting preli- 

 minary information and commencing at 

 least some experimental trials. So far 

 as I can see there is no real reason why 

 this was not done everywhere nearly ten 

 years ago. 



Unfortunately, though science may 

 provide us with facts, humanity is slow 

 to credit them, and still more slow to take 

 advantage of them. History is full of 

 examples of this. For instance, years 

 elapsed before the discovery of Jenner 

 was fully utilised— it is not fully utilised 

 even yet. Another instance, closely con- 

 nected with malaria is that of filariisis, 

 a parasitic disease of which elephantiasis 

 is one manifestation. More than thirty 

 years ago very good evidence was given 

 to shew that it is carried by mof-quitoes ; 

 and, considering the horrible and wide- 

 spread deformities which it produces, 

 one would have thought that strong 

 efforts would have quickly been made 

 to control it by reducing the carrying 

 agents. So far as I can ascertain, how- 

 ever, scarcely anything has yet been 

 even attempted against it. No one has 

 interested himself seriously in the mat- 

 ter, and consequently nothine has been 

 done. 



It was therefore early apparent to me 

 that, although the machinery for exten- 

 sive anti-malarial work existed in many 



countries, yet it would not easily be got 

 to work unless someone could be found 

 who would devote himself to the task 

 — neither a pleasant nor a profitable one 

 —of urging it forward, and I felt that 

 the duty devolved on myself in the ab- 

 sence of others, as regards British terri- 

 tory. Happily Angelo Celli and Robert 

 Koch occupied themselves similarly as 

 regards Italy and Germany ; and the 

 creation of the Schools of Tropical Medi- 

 cine in Liverpool and London in 1899 

 did much to popularise the recent dis- 

 coveries. 



When I left India in 1899 I hoped that 

 the great dependency of the Biitish 

 Crown, with its powerful Government 

 and well-appointed medical and sanitary 

 services, would lead the way against 

 malaria, a disease which causes untold 

 sickness and possibly some millions of 

 deaths annually in the country ; but 

 though many local campaigns have been 

 started by individual medical men, and 

 though there has been a steady fall in 

 the malaria rate of the army, I can find 

 no evidence of the generalised effort 

 against the disease. Less than three 

 months ago I attended the Medical Con- 

 gress at Bombay, largely for the purpose 

 of inquiring into the reason of this, and 

 concluded that though many capable 

 officers both of the Indian Medical Ser- 

 vice and of the Royal Army Medical 

 Corps had done their best, yet that the 

 necessary leadership and organisation 

 were wanting in India as in West Africa. 

 An ill-judged and ill-conducted experi- 

 ment at Mian Mir had done much to 

 paralyse all efforts in this direction, and 

 I gathered that anti-malarial campaigns 

 were not popular among certain officials. 

 Neither the Indian Government nor the 

 Medical Services can be congratulated 

 on the result. 



Some years ago the Secretary of Stato 

 tor the Colonies issued a circular to the 

 Governors of Crown Colonies asking for 

 information as to what has been done in 

 each against malaria and other mosquito- 

 borne diseases, and statements on the 

 matter from twenty-one colonies were 

 published in the Report of the Advisory 

 Committee of the Tropical Diseases Re- 

 search Fund for 1907. I have critised 

 these statements in detail elsewhere. 

 Only those furnished by seven Colonies, 

 namely, Southern Rhodesia, Papua, 

 Mauritius, British Central Africa, Gam- 

 bia, Ceylon, and Southern Nigeria, 

 shewed evidence of any real interest in 

 the matter. 



For a number of years I have had 

 very good opportunities of learning the 

 truth as to what is really being done in 

 many of these and other dependencies. 



