TROPICAL DISEASES,

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 311, 25 September 1908, Page 7

TROPICAL DISEASES,

AUSTRALIAN STUDY. (BY TFLEGBAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COrYRIOHT.) (Rec, September 24, 8.45 p.m.) London, September 24. A committee appointed by the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical Modicino and the Royal Society will nominate the first director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine. The committee is prepared to receive Australian applications. A QUEENSLAND INSTITUTION. ' It is proposed to establish a sort of observation institution for tropical diseases in connection with the Cooktown Hospital, Queensland. It is proposed that the institution bo managed mainly by the University of Sydney, and bo kept constantly, in. touch with the pathological and other scientific departments in Melbourne. Sydney, and Adelaide Professor Anderson Stuart has pointed out that the results,of tho definite.,study, of .tropical diseases'.'constitutes' one 'of the'most' reraarkablo achievements of modern science. Tho British Empire is largely tropical, and such study is of prime imperial importance. It may be said that the diseases of the kind in ques- . tion are few and' compafatively' unimportant so far in' Australia. Still, they do exist. Malaria, dengue, and the earth-eating disease, for example, might all come within the scope of such a school as is proposed for Queensland. Particulars of them may be of tho greatesl value to inquirers in other parts of' the world, whilst what has been learnt there will be of use to Australia. .

The marvellous thing about those tropical diseases is tho'. way in which they spread. Sir Patrick Manson. the Medical Adviser to the Colonial Office, has told the African Socioty about "malaria" and its subdivisions, and about how of these latter the "sleeping sickness" had worked its evil way from the West Coast of Africa, through, the Congo and the great forests, to Lake Victoria Nyanza, devastating Uganda, and threatening in their turn the upper waters of the Nilo, Lake Tanganyika, Rhodesia, and even India. Myriads of human lives would bo lost if this extensive programino were fulfilled, and if tropical Asia became a victim to the pest. It is in order to combat such an extension that the Advisory Committee of the Tropical Diseases Research Fund was established. by Mr. Chamberlain-in lilUi in connection with the Colonial Office. • This committee has contributed largely to the funds of the various bodies interested in the combating of the ■ diseases concerned. Chief amongst these bodies is the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, but the London University, which has shown a keen interest in tho matter from the beginning, has a fair share of tho grant. The immediate results to Australia may be of little value, or they may be of the utmost importance.