The growth of a public health service in a tropical town / by R.R. Scott ..., Senior Health Officer, Tanganyika Territory.

  • Scott, R. R., 1942-
Date:
[1933?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The growth of a public health service in a tropical town / by R.R. Scott ..., Senior Health Officer, Tanganyika Territory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the best of them are really excellent fellows, though many, of course, fall far short of the ideal. In addition shorter courses in Swahili of a much more elementary type are held for District Inspectors, of whom we now have 140 in the Territory, although the axe has fallen heavily among their ranks. Since so little in the way of new services is apparent from comparison of the 1919 and 1931 lists, I must ask you to accept my assurance that very real advance has been made in the thoroughness with which the work in the different sections has been carried out; and in 1931 we had a staff of three Medical Officers, three Sanitary Superintendents, a clerk-storekeeper, and two Health Visitors in addition to a greatly increased subordinate staff. A feature of administration unusual perhaps in most countries but not without value in many respects was the appoint¬ ment in 1923 of the M.O.II. to carry out the duties of Executive Officer to the Township Authority. In a small town this works well and does not entail too much work for the M.O.H. and his staff. But when extensive building is taking place and town development generally is progressing rapidly the M.O.H. must be relieved of these duties or his proper sphere will suffer. In Dar es Salaam the two functions were not separated until 1931, although a European clerk, a building inspector, and a clerical staff were appointed in 1925 to assist the M.O.H, with that branch of his work. In connection with the educational side of public health work in the tropics—and what an important side it is—I would here ask your leave to pay tribute to the help I have received since 1920 from that wonderful organisation, the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Besearch, and from its first and beloved Chief, the late Sir Andrew Balfour: a giant among men and kindly withal to the most humble “ helper in hygiene.” As a former M.O.H. of Khartoum I think he truly ranks with Manson, the ” Eather of Tropical Medicine ” as the “ Father of Hygiene in the Tropics.” for he never ceased to preach the gospel that hygiene was hygiene all the world over: what differed was its application in differing circumstances. As one of his numerous disciples I grieve to think how much the poorer is the world by his untimely death; but what an enduring monument he has raised to posterity by his labours in connection with the founda¬ tion of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.