The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-08-18
THIS TERRITORY
IS TOO HEALTHY
But Geographical Location Is
Approved for Study of
Disease.
To the Editor Of the Medical Record.

|
emitted : An American School of Trop
ieal Medicine" my good friend. DIR
Isaac ". Brewer Of the United States
FooIlc Health and Marine Hospital Ser.
> wee, eleverly takes advantage of Ha.
wal s freedom from malaria to urge
MS claim that New Orleans is the best
location for an American School If
tropical Medicine, and that Honoiui1
IS too far from abundant malarial clint
cal material.
IN the Harvard Graduates Magazine
Tor June, 1908, 1T. Edward Nelson
Iobey, teacher Of baeteriology in the
Harvard Medical School, has an article
on Tropical Medicine in which be
urges the establishment of an Amer
lean school similar to those in London
ana Liverpool, England; HAMBURG Ger
many, and Brussels, Belgium. He snp
gests that the Canal Zone would seem
70 be an ideal place, as it is within
easy reach of tropical countries in both
oceans, and it viii soon be a Mace
where the ships from all ports Of the
tropics will pass. He says. as to the
ooJeets of school of tropical medi-
enc: The object Of any school of
Tropical medicine is twofold: First.Sto
spread the knowledge already obtained.
secondly, to advance knowledge by re-
seareh In department. of this sort
one physician should be at work in the
| medleal school to teach the subject. to
| work up the material brought home.
ana 20 aid the investigator in the
tropics. In England the
schools have a certain ANIMAL GRANT
from the government. Expeditions are
nIted. out by private subscriptions. and
the government in many eases has paid
transportation charges and allowed the
members OF the expedition about So. SO
day for travelling expenses while in
the tropics. Our government, if asked.
might respond in a similar manner |
WhF should not Harvard take the |
lead2'' 'H0
While departments on tropical medi- |
cine IN the various colleges and schools |
OUTSIDE or the tropics have their place I
ana dlffuse great deal of valuable
knowledge regarding diseases peculiar
to the tropics, they cannot supply the
speelfc need of school of tropical
medicine situated in the tropics: this
fact. I think, is undisputed. T am
ready TO grant that a certain amount
OF local pride and patriotic partizanship
may color my stated reasons and pref
erences as to location. as well as If
does the preferences of my dissenting
associates. but / think it is easy to
make 1t plain to strictly disinterested
parties why Honolulu is at the present
time the best location in the United
states for an adequate school of tropi
cal medicine. Aside from the con
slhned local prevalence of the peculiar
diseases to be studied, and the avail
aplllty OF sufficient clinical material.
We must look to the conditions affect
ing tnose who are to teach and those
who come to learn. As Sir patricl,
Manson said in his San Francisco leo. /
tnre, the typically tropical country was |
not an ideal location for the studv of / |
even typieally tropical diseases. because
OF uncomfortable physical conditions. H
like hot, humid temperature, and an
extreme and almost unavoidable Eahil- I |
fy to contract infectious diseases.
For this reason Panama. on account 2
# its heat and unhealthfulness. as well
IS for other reasons, must be excluded :
New Orleans, as a populous Amer. .
can city. offers many inducements .
10 doubt, and my friend Over .
md his efficient associates down d
mere are real allurements. In a teach !, -
ng staff and material for the study =
L leprosy, we must acknowledge the =
uperiority of New Orleans over anv 81
Their mainland city. But New Orleans az
not IN the tropics, nor has it III
innate which can be called comfort y
BILE. 1t has periodical epidemics which al
re not particularly useful in a scienti- OF
c way to investigators who reside "A
here, and may be dangerous to their M
lfety. The yellow fever waves which al
ass that way are not of the nature TT
, contribute much to science, owing III
natural eagerness on the part of err
ssidents to limit them as to time and IN
rulence and to the fact that expedi- an
ons equipped for special work in an
oidemics are able to secure all the LEI
tia needed.
So far as Hawaii is concerned, it has IS
e yellow fever mosquito, and needs is
It the disease itself as an erratic wa
id ephemeral visitant reaping its nm
adly harvests at long and irregular col
tervals. As to malaria, which DR.. Cpl
ever emphasizes, it is indeed very IN
portant disease. and should be fami-
Z 10 every medlcaI practitioner, but Iio
is not strictly a disease of the tropics die
Y more than is leprosy. Malaria may Orl
studied in the Sacramento Valley. pin
Kern and other places in California;; Mo
Oregon. in Indiana, in Michigan, and con
en- in New Jersey. The very fact We
It malaria may not be acquired phvsi- in
ly as well as intellectually within in
r borders is, am inclined to believe. SON
advantage to be considered in the Aus
Adjustment of a school of tropical mer
dicine Chi
Now. such places as Panama, Porto L
o. Manila and other points mention uno
as available locations Except New matt
eans). do not have. and cannot have, inst
resident teaching staff quite as by
essary to a successful school as the thro
zeal material. seve
t is as necessary as anything else eife
t the school should have not only of ,
ably impaired theory of large worl
os of teachers and demonstrators. ciic
that it should have their actual tiers.
erienee as doctors of medicine in to fl
tronics Honolulu has this staff, cal {
he Tentative Schedule of the Ho- cife.
"