Colonial Medical Research

^ to say a few words about this aspect of British Colonial stewardship. (C central organizing body is the Colonial Medical Research Committee It is aided by regional organizations in some of the Colonial territories, t^e ?S1: "^r*ca by the East African Bureau of Research in Medicine and Hygiene and ^frieaK "^r*can Standing Advisory Committee for Medical Research, and in West \ye , ky a similar Standing Advisory Committee which will soon be enlarged to a The r Can ^ounc^ f?r Medical Research. DeVelC ^-M.R.C. administers funds allocated to it under the 1945 and 1950 Colonial per ?Pment and Welfare Acts. Up to 1953 ?12,200,000 has been provided, 14.2 per nt which has been allotted to medical research directly, and a further 27.1 reSe /? t(^ work closely linked with medical problems like tsetse and trypanomiasis Hiajj..0. ? The way in which these monies are used varies widely: research units are the ]Vt j1ln Colonies, assistance is given to research programmes undertaken by is Sllb -j* departments of Colonial territories, the training of young medical workers in ^ t!Z. > special grants are made to research institutions or university departments ^eVelo nitcd Kingdom working on problems of interest to the Colonies. A new C^ent which the C.M.R.C. seeks increasingly to foster is the provision in t^e Sh centres of facilities for senior research workers from British universities for The0^"^111 study ?f specific problems. Pathoio ^rrris ?f research work done in the Colonies include medical surveys, clinicoti?Hal d^fi ̂ stuc^es an(i therapeutic trials; infectious and parasitic diseases, nutriThe 1 C1ency and endocrine diseases, and physiological problems are studied. *? Prov i^S1?^?^ca^ research is by no means an academic extravagance; it is necessary Pathol >e f ^as^s f?r clinical work. Thus one of the difficulties of investigating a hanks t l Conc^on *n an African territory is the lack of normal or control data. * standa 1 1 labour of several generations of physiologists and clinical pathologists, ?r Plasma text~book usually contains reliable ranges for, say, the level of most blood y there C?ns^tuents in Europeans or North Americans of most age-groups. Simi^r?ans 0f Lare numerous investigations giving the results of function tests on various l*habitant y wlute people. However, very few such facts are known about the erences ^0^oriial territories. It is, of course, not to be assumed a priori that lstics. ^ be found, and, if found, that they are due to different racial character1 HCV mntr 1 J.1 1 ? nr . 1 ? 1*.* T?