During the discussion of the Colonial Estimates on Friday, March
10th, Mr. Chamberlain made what we cannot doubt to be a very wise, and also practical, proposal. The Government is going to assist in the establishment of a special institution for the study of tropical diseases. As our readers know, the loss of English lives by disease on the West Coast of Africa affords a terrible illustration of the truth of Mr. Kipling's words that "on the bones of the English the English flag is laid." Mr. Chamberlain is determined to make the necessary looses small as possible, and he does not despairof improvement, since Calcutta in early days, and more recently Rangoon were looked on as the graves of the white man. Accordingly, at the Dreadnought Hospital special provision will be made for the study of tropical diseases, and doctors who are ordered to West Africa and the tropics generally will go through a course there. Nothing will, of course, make a tropical swamp into a health resort, but we do not doubt that the careful collection and study of all the facts connected with tropical disease will be of immense value. It certainly behoves us who have possessions in every part of the tropics to lead the way in this matter.
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