TROPICAL DISEASES.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1008, 29 September 1903, Page 2

TROPICAL DISEASES.

One of the most serious problems in connection with the expansion of our colonies in the tropical regions is that of combatting, and if possible conquering, the grave diseased that have caused such terrible sacrifice of huma ll life in hot countries in the past. On 0 has only to mention the dreaded sleeping sickness, bubonic plague, Asiatic cholera, yellow fever and malaria, to remind us that the disease record of the tropics is far more terrible than that of the temperate regions. Cholera and plague break out periodically, while other serious diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria, are nearly always in evidence. Happily medical science has long been on the track of these terrors, and our knowledge of their causes and the best methods of meeting them has advanced by leaps and bounds within recent years. Much, however, remains to be done, and it is to do this that the London School of Tropical Medicine exists. The school owes its existence to the public spirit and enterprise of the Bight Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, who in 1898, at the suggestion of the Medical Adviser to jthe Colonial Office, invited the managing committee of the Seaman’s Hospital Society to establish such a school in connection with their hospital. Hp to this date there had been no adequate provision made by which practitioners or medical missionaries proceeding to the tropics could obtain practical instruction in those department's of diagnosis and treatment which are peculiar to hot climates. The work done at the school is distinctly practical. The students are taught not only how to diagnose tropical diseases, but also to investigate them and trace them to their true sources. This is necessary, as in tropical countries the medical man may have to depend upon himself entirely ,in investigating and also in stamping out an epidemic of disease. Experiments at the school have demonstrated the spread of malaria by the bite of mosquitoes, and have proved that this disease, so prevalent and so mischievous in hot countries can be prevented simply by avoiding mosquito bites. Doutbless the knowledge of this has led Colonel Brace-to the conclusion that the sleeping sickness, which is at present ravaging Uganda, isjdue to the bite of the bibu fly. That the London School of Tropical Medicine will take up tho subject of the' sleeping sickness we have no doubt. Tho future progress of our Central African possessions depends largely upon the ability to cope successfully with this special disease that at present hinders their advancement.