DISEASE IN SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18553, 10 November 1923, Page 13

DISEASE IN SAMOA.

BRITISH EXPEDITION.

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION.

CO-OPERATION OF GOVERNMENT.

A new expedition to the tropics, under the auspices of the London School of Tropical Medicine, for the purposes of studying a disease which affects 85 per cent, of the natives of the Pacific Islands, and a large number of the Europeans living there, is shortly to leave London, under the direction off Dr. Patrick Buxton. Dr Buxton and his party will start on November 15 for Samoa, with the object of studying elephantiasis and filariasis, a disease which has not hitherto received the attention that its prevalence in the tropics demands. The importance of the new scientific expedition to Samoa lies in the fact that it is hoped that the medical knowledge derived from the investigations to be carried out by Dr. Buxton will be applicable to India and Africa and other Dominions. Dr. Buxton, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, is already well known for the work in entomology which he did in Mesopotamia during the war, and also, more recently, as entomologist for the Palestine Government in Jerusalem. He comes of a family which distinguished itself in the past as pioneers of, natural history. v. The new expedition is going to Samoa with headquarters at Apia, and will be away two years. It will work in close co-operation with the New Zealand Government. Infection by Mosquito. It is thought that the great susceptibility of the .Polynesians to diseases of all sorts, especially tuberculosis, and the great diminution of their numbers which is taking place at the present time, is du>. to the universal infection of the worm which is known as filaria. The Eresence of this worm in the human ody, and its transference from one human being to another, by the mosquito known as Stegomyia, is now well known. This peculiar mosquito is apparently confined to the Pacifio group, and wherever it is found, a particularly virulent form of filariasis in man ensues. Efforts to find a drug with which to kill the filaria in the human body without destroying the human cells have so far proved unsuccessful. Acting on the information gained by three other expeditions despatched by the School of Tropical Medicine, a fresh attempt will be made to wipe out the disease by exterminating the mosquito which causes it, on lines analogous to those adopted in the Panama regions and elsewhere. It appears that in . this particular case the problem is a comparatively simple one. The Stegomyia mosquito is one which lives in and around cocoanut trees; it is also found in the empty cocoanut shells which are stacked in the making of copra, and wherever the copra-making industry is most thriving, there this mosquito is most abundant. Eliminating - Breeding Places. It is proposed that Dr. Buxton and his assistants should take over some small island a mile or two in diameter, where every breeding-place of this mosquito will be effectively -ideals with- Tbif native method of storing water is in artificially-hollowed cocoanut trees, and it is proposed to instal in place of these primitive means of holding water properly constructed cisterns for the supply of pure water. It is, furthermore, the opinion that this mosquito cannot exist where the dense undergrowth has been properly cut down. It is by cutting airways, or rides, through the dense jungle and exposing the adult insect to the trade winds of the Pacific that the Stegomyia will be blown away. It is quite possible that by adopting both these methods the mosquitos may, within as short a period of time as one year, bo so reduced in numbers as to be innocuous. It is thought that an objectlesson of this kind may be applied to the larger islands, and so to the whole of the Pacific, wherever filaria is rife. Iroxther Objects in View. There are a great many parasitic diseases in Samoa which are found in other parts of the tropics, and it is specially proposed to pursue the study of ankylostomiasis, which Dr. O'Connor found to be widespread in the islands, a fact hitherto not sufficiently appreciated. The disease is believed to be responsible for further undermining the health ipf the natives and inducing their wellknown proclivity to tuberculosis. Further objects of the expendition are to test the immediate effects of the tropical climate on the physiology of the normal European body. This is a subject to which very little attention has been paid, and it is one which, it will be readily understood, is important. The finer methods of such investigation havo only recently become possible since the development of the science known as biochemistry. Dr. Buxton is well equipped with instruments, and proposes to test the effect of the sun's rays on the European skin !by means of the cata-ther-mometer and other instruments advised by Leonard Hill during the war. As a well-equipped ornithologist and entomologist, Dr. Buxton hopes also to take back with him a large collection, of birds (manv of which are becoming extmct), butterflies, and insects for the British Museum.