53^ 
as  dispensations  of  Providence,  which  they  had  not  the  means  to 
cure,  and  which  must  therefore  be  endured  as  best  they  could.  And 
if  the  gratuitous  administration  of  quinine  will  alleviate  their 
hardships,  I  can  hardly  believe  that  it  will  be  withheld. 
2.  The  second  point  is  that  the  supply  must  be  placed  in  such  a 
position  as  to  be  easily  available ;  it  must  be  forced  on  the  attention 
of  the  people.  It  is  no  use  saying  that  quinine  can  be  had  by  applying 
to  the  Dispenser  at  Falmouth  or  Annotto  Bay,  or  any  of  the  other 
Hospitals.  That  will  serve  very  well  for  the  inhabitants  of  the 
locality ;  but  a  woman  with  fever  is  not  going  to  tramp  five  or  ten 
miles  for  doses  of  quinine,  or  if  she  gets  one  supply,  she  will  not 
trouble  about  the  next. 
And  there  is  already  an  identical  example  of  this  in  the  Island 
in  the  case  of  yaws.  This  disease  is  very  amenable  to  treatment,  and 
medicine  is  supplied  free.  But  to  be  effective,  it  must  be  taken 
continuously,  and  I  found  that  one  bottle  would  be  taken,  and  then 
it  would  be  discontinued  until  the  individual  happened  to  be  again 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  supply.  Hence  the  effect  is  lost,  and 
there  is  a  considerable  waste  of  public  money. 
3.  It  must  be  given  in  sufficient  quantity.  In  a  family  of  four,  for 
example,  father,  mother  and  two  children  of  eleven  and  seven,  say, 
living  in  a  malarious  district,  enough  must  be  given  to  allow  them 
to  take  17  grains  a  day,  and  it  should  be  carefully  explained  to  them 
how  they  are  to  take  it. 
To  give  them  half  an  ounce  and  to  expect  it  to  last  a  month  would 
be  not  only  useless,  as  a  preventive,  but  a  waste  of  money. 
Consequently  some  machinery  for  distribution  is  necessary. 
The  best  method  is  by  the  appointment  of  Quinine  Dispensers 
for  various  malarious  districts,  whose  duties  would  be  to  visit  the 
various  hamlets,  to  make  house-to-house  visitations  to  find  out  the 
people  who  suffer  from  fever,  to  explain  the  proper  method  of  taking 
quinine,  and  to  report  to  the  Medical  Officer  acute  attacks  of 
malarial  fever.  There  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  distribute 
at  the  same  time  the  medicine  for  yaws,  or  for  another  scourge  of 
the  children  of  the  Island,  worms. 
They  would  in  the  first  place  receive  tuition  as  to  the  method  of 
admin  stering  cu  nine,  the  recognition  of  cases  of  fever,  and  of 
enlarged  spleens,  and  should,  I  think,  be  under  the  control  of  the 
