The improvement of native agriculture in relation to population and public health / by Sir A. Daniel Hall.

  • Hall, A. Daniel (Alfred Daniel), Sir, 1864-1942.
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The improvement of native agriculture in relation to population and public health / by Sir A. Daniel Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    common among the women than among the men in the Kikuyu reserve, notably so as regards tuberculosis. It should be borne in mind that the Kikuyu women do severe physical work, particularly in carrying water and firewood. Efforts have been made to discourage the heavy loads that the Kikuyu women carry because of their injurious effects upon childbearing, with little result, however, because the weight of the load they carry is a point of honour among the women. As regards the comparison between the two tribes, the incidence of malaria, yaws, helminthiasis, and ulcers is higher among the Kikuyu; on the other hand, the occurrence of chronic constipation and arthritis is higher among the Masai. Following on the same line are the observations of Cleever7 that dental caries, pellagra, and incipient pella¬ gra are common among the Bantu of Zululand and the Transkei, whose diet consists largely of mealies, i.e. maize. Again, Gilks8 points out that there is no dental caries among the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha, who have no cereals but live on a diet which is mainly potatoes and milk. Gilks also attributes the prevalence of ocular trouble among the African tribes and of the scurvy in both South and East Africa to Vitamin A deficiency in the ordinary diets. In 1931 the Medical Department of Kenya carried out a further survey of the health of the Masai, and in his report9 Dr. A. R. Paterson summarizes the results of this and a similar inquiry into the health of the Wadigo, a coastal people living to the south of Mombasa. Dr. Paterson is less sanguine about the health of the Masai than were Orr and Gilks, though their state of nourishment was, on the whole, good; anaemia was only common among the babies, and there was little malaria or hookworm. But he goes on: ‘We find a high incidence of tapeworm and roundworm, a very high incidence of pyorrhea, an incidence of eye affections suggestive of Egypt, and a child mortality rate bordering upon 500 per 1,000 births, while about 34 per cent, of the women appear to be sterile, gonorrhea being chiefly responsible.’ ‘A high rate of roundworm infestation is a sure index of insanitary circumstances. Tapeworm is to be expected among a meat-eating