H. A. WILKINS
of infection. Annals sitology,
of Tropical
Medicine
and Para-
71, 53-58.
Young, S. W., Farid, Z., Bassily, S. & El-Masry, N. A. (1973). Urinary schistosomiasis. A 5-year clinical, radiological and functional evaluation. 7Zansactions
489
AND M. EL-SAWY of the Royal 67, 379-383.
Accepted
Society
of Tropical
for publication
9th May,
Medicine
and Hygiene,
1977.
Letter to the President from Professor J. H. S. Gear Sin-When I received the letters from your Honorary Secretary and two members of the Council bearing to me the almost unbelievable news that I had been awarded the Manson Medal, my breath was taken away and I was left speechless. Speechless is the frame of mind in which my friends and relations, several of whom I was privileged to have present that evening, prefer to find me. However, I cannot let this occasion and opportunity pass without saying a few words of appreciation of the work in Africa of the members of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Since time immemorial Tropical Africa has been notorious for the dangers that threatened the lives of those who ventured into the interior. These dangers have been largely removed and the threats lessened, and at present in the interior of Tropical Africa great industrial and agricultural enterprises, large dams and extensive irrigation systems have been developed and great modern cities have sprouted alongside the mud huts of the traditional villages. This has been achieved by international efforts but in this Jubilee year it is appropriate to recall in particular the part played by British medical scientists whose work in Africa contributed to this transformation. One recalls James Lind whose carefully controlled stud& confirmed the value of citrus fruit in the treatment of scurvy and so removed this threat to the health of the sailors of the British Navy. One recalls Mungo Park, another British Navy surgeon who, in his journeys across West Africa, discovered the sources of the Senegal, Gambia and Niger Rivers and whose reports of the cruelties of the slave trade stimulated and encouraged Wilberforce in his campaign for its abolition. After the sailors came the medical missionaries, the most famous of whom was David Livingstone, who, as well as being a great explorer, was a most meticulous scientific observer noting amongst many other observations the ravages of ngana amongst his cattle following the bites of tsetse flies. The medical missionaries were followed by the soldiers amongst whom was Sir David Bruce who proved that ngana was caused by trypanosomes transmitted by tsetse flies which acquired the infection from a reservoir in the wild animals. These discoveries finally led to the eradication of this infection from Zululand in South Africa where he worked. Then it was Winston Churchill himself who overruled the objections of the Colonial Office to the trials of Bayer 205 for the treatment of cases of trypanosomiases in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. Thcsc proved it to bc most effective and it is still the best drug for the treatment of the acute stage of Rhodesian
sleeping sickness. One recalls the discovery by Sir William Leishman of the Leishman-Donovan body the cause of leishmaniasis, a disease recently found to be widespread in South West Africa, and his development with Sir Almroth Wright of typhoid vaccine first used to protect British soldiers serving in South Africa in the Anglo Boer War, and the development by Sir Almroth Wright and Sir Spencer Lister of vaccines to protect the miners of the Witwatersrand against pneumonia. The studies of the joint British American Commission on yellow fever elucidated the ecology of yellow fever in Africa. This was followed by the development of the 17D attenuated strain of yellow fever virus by a team led by Dr. Max Theiler, a South African, and Dr. Hugh Smith of the Rockefeller Foundation. Used widely, this, one of the most successful human vaccines, has removed the threat of yellow fever to the health and lives of those living in or passing through the endemic region. One recalls the work of Dr. Leiper in incriminating the snail intermediate hosts of Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni in Egypt and finally establishing S. mansoni as a separate species. These are a few of the pioneers whose work laid the foundations on which their successors have built to make Africa a healthier place. Many were inspired by Sir Patrick Manson the father of modern Tropical Medicine whose name we honour in this House and in the medal 1 have just received. New problems continually arise “Ex Africa semper aliquid no+‘, said so often that it sounds trite, but as true today as when Pliny quoted it about 2,000 years ago. He was referring to animals. Today it is true of viruses as witness the recent outbreaks of Lassa fever in 1969, Marburg virus disease in 1967 and 1975 and Ebola virus disease in 1976. In the elucidation of the aetiology of these infections and in the treatment of the patients, members of this Society had a crucial role to play and all concerned are most grateful to them for their help, as we are to their predecessors the early pioneers, and I would like to conclude by expressing our deep gratitude to the members of this Society whose work has made Africa
a healthier
place
in which
to live.
Thank you Mr. President. I am, etc., J. H. S. GEAR South African Institute P.O. Box 1038, Johannesburg, South Africa.
for Medical
Research,
of infection. Annals sitology,
of Tropical
Medicine
and Para-
71, 53-58.
Young, S. W., Farid, Z., Bassily, S. & El-Masry, N. A. (1973). Urinary schistosomiasis. A 5-year clinical, radiological and functional evaluation. 7Zansactions
489
AND M. EL-SAWY of the Royal 67, 379-383.
Accepted
Society
of Tropical
for publication
9th May,
Medicine
and Hygiene,
1977.
Letter to the President from Professor J. H. S. Gear Sin-When I received the letters from your Honorary Secretary and two members of the Council bearing to me the almost unbelievable news that I had been awarded the Manson Medal, my breath was taken away and I was left speechless. Speechless is the frame of mind in which my friends and relations, several of whom I was privileged to have present that evening, prefer to find me. However, I cannot let this occasion and opportunity pass without saying a few words of appreciation of the work in Africa of the members of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Since time immemorial Tropical Africa has been notorious for the dangers that threatened the lives of those who ventured into the interior. These dangers have been largely removed and the threats lessened, and at present in the interior of Tropical Africa great industrial and agricultural enterprises, large dams and extensive irrigation systems have been developed and great modern cities have sprouted alongside the mud huts of the traditional villages. This has been achieved by international efforts but in this Jubilee year it is appropriate to recall in particular the part played by British medical scientists whose work in Africa contributed to this transformation. One recalls James Lind whose carefully controlled stud& confirmed the value of citrus fruit in the treatment of scurvy and so removed this threat to the health of the sailors of the British Navy. One recalls Mungo Park, another British Navy surgeon who, in his journeys across West Africa, discovered the sources of the Senegal, Gambia and Niger Rivers and whose reports of the cruelties of the slave trade stimulated and encouraged Wilberforce in his campaign for its abolition. After the sailors came the medical missionaries, the most famous of whom was David Livingstone, who, as well as being a great explorer, was a most meticulous scientific observer noting amongst many other observations the ravages of ngana amongst his cattle following the bites of tsetse flies. The medical missionaries were followed by the soldiers amongst whom was Sir David Bruce who proved that ngana was caused by trypanosomes transmitted by tsetse flies which acquired the infection from a reservoir in the wild animals. These discoveries finally led to the eradication of this infection from Zululand in South Africa where he worked. Then it was Winston Churchill himself who overruled the objections of the Colonial Office to the trials of Bayer 205 for the treatment of cases of trypanosomiases in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. Thcsc proved it to bc most effective and it is still the best drug for the treatment of the acute stage of Rhodesian
sleeping sickness. One recalls the discovery by Sir William Leishman of the Leishman-Donovan body the cause of leishmaniasis, a disease recently found to be widespread in South West Africa, and his development with Sir Almroth Wright of typhoid vaccine first used to protect British soldiers serving in South Africa in the Anglo Boer War, and the development by Sir Almroth Wright and Sir Spencer Lister of vaccines to protect the miners of the Witwatersrand against pneumonia. The studies of the joint British American Commission on yellow fever elucidated the ecology of yellow fever in Africa. This was followed by the development of the 17D attenuated strain of yellow fever virus by a team led by Dr. Max Theiler, a South African, and Dr. Hugh Smith of the Rockefeller Foundation. Used widely, this, one of the most successful human vaccines, has removed the threat of yellow fever to the health and lives of those living in or passing through the endemic region. One recalls the work of Dr. Leiper in incriminating the snail intermediate hosts of Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni in Egypt and finally establishing S. mansoni as a separate species. These are a few of the pioneers whose work laid the foundations on which their successors have built to make Africa a healthier place. Many were inspired by Sir Patrick Manson the father of modern Tropical Medicine whose name we honour in this House and in the medal 1 have just received. New problems continually arise “Ex Africa semper aliquid no+‘, said so often that it sounds trite, but as true today as when Pliny quoted it about 2,000 years ago. He was referring to animals. Today it is true of viruses as witness the recent outbreaks of Lassa fever in 1969, Marburg virus disease in 1967 and 1975 and Ebola virus disease in 1976. In the elucidation of the aetiology of these infections and in the treatment of the patients, members of this Society had a crucial role to play and all concerned are most grateful to them for their help, as we are to their predecessors the early pioneers, and I would like to conclude by expressing our deep gratitude to the members of this Society whose work has made Africa
a healthier
place
in which
to live.
Thank you Mr. President. I am, etc., J. H. S. GEAR South African Institute P.O. Box 1038, Johannesburg, South Africa.
for Medical
Research,
