62 For the proper inspection of all public water supplies, a special water service was established (1914).

The reorganisation of the Central Medical Commission and the appointment of a permanent president and vice-president was carried out (1914).

In 1917 a commission was appointed to enquire into the public health conditions in the country, which were alleged to be unsatisfactory. The commission was composed of members drawn from outside the Egyptian Government. The commission reported most favourably on the existing organisation, but made a strong recommendation that the status of the department should be improved and that a Ministry of Public Health should be formed. The report of the commission was issued in July 1918.

The feeling of discontent amongst the technical staff of the administration has for some years been growing, and has now become so pronounced that difficulty is experienced in obtaining candidates for the department. The low rate of pay and the limits of the career offered are the chief causes of complaint, and the whole status of the department is now under consideration by the Government.

As a result of the findings of the Government Commission, which sat in June 1918 to enquire into the work of this administration, an improvement in the status of the department has been decided upon, and preferential treatment as regards the pay of doctors has been promised.

A Board of Health had been set up. by legal enactment for the consideration and study of questions of public health, policy, proposals for new laws and decrees, campaigns against particular diseases, &c.

A reorganisation of the Medical School at Kasr-el-Aini has been undertaken, which will ensure an increased output of doctors. The project as at present existing also provides for the rebuilding of the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital, which serves as the teaching hospital of the school. For years it has been recognised as unsatisfactory and inadequate. The new Medical School will include a School of Dentistry.

During 1919 the scavenging and watering service of the city of Cairo was detached from the Public Health Administration and handed over to the Ministry of Public Works, the idea being that the department responsible for making and repairing the roads, &c., is best'qualified to attend to the cleaning and watering of them, ft is, however, part of the duty of the medical officer of the city to keep an eye on the work and to report upon and control it.

As was anticipated in the 1918 report, the Central Medical Commission, with its branches in London and Paris, were retransferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Public Health Administration.

The Deputy Director-General, recalled from military service at the end of November 1918, was definitely appointed Director-General.

Dr. Ferguson Lees, late Medical Officer of Health, Cairo, was promoted to the post of Deputy Director-General, and he was succeeded by Dr. Williams in the important post at Cairo.

The Budgetary allowance for 1919-1920 amounted to £E. 716,017, as compared with £E. 596,562 in 1918-1919. It is to be noted that the grants for repairs and new buildings are not' included in the former figure, being now shown in the budget of the Ministry of Public Works.

The political excitement in the spring, culminating in demonstrations, disturbances and strikes, resulted in a serious set-back to public health work in 1919. Owing to the desertion of the non-technical staff, and to the difficulty of supply, isolation hospitals and camps and infectious disease treatment centres had of necessity to be closed down, so that isolated fom of infection in out-districts and villages, usually easily dealt with, could not be taken in hand, and were perforce left to smoulder ana to flare up subsequently in epidemic virulence. Not only the lower grade personnel quitted their posts and work at out-stations, but even the clerical staffs at Mudiria towns and headquarters became so infected with the general excitement that it is to be feared statistical tables and figures suffered, and will fail to give reliable statements of the work of the different sections and departments of the administration.

Although the great majority of the Egyptian medical staff’ participated in the national movement and aspirations, to their credit be it said that their sense of public duty, respect for humanitarian principles, and for professional ethics, led them to report their assurance of the continuity of service at hospitals, dispensaries, laboratories and public health offices at a moment \yhen practically evefy other branch of the service had stopped work as a sign of public protest.

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