49 General Routine Work The nature of this work may be classed under two main headings :—1. Patholomcal • 2. Chemical. It bulked so largely that little time was afforded for original investigations, but then again some of it was really more or less research work, and in any case the mere fact that so much had to be done thus early in the laboratories’ career, seems to show that they have filled a felt want.

Under each of the above headings is placed a list of the examinations and analyses performed.

1. Pathological 5 4 3 Nature No.

(a) Morbid secretions and excretions . . . . 16 (b) Blood . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 (c) Bacteriological apart from (a) . . . . 6 (d) Parasites apart from (a) and (b) (e) New growths (/) Other pathological conditions It may be as well to indicate some of the forms of disease encountered and included under these figures, and also to deal briefly with the more common diseases found in the Sudan. The classification adopted by Wellman1 for the diseases of Angola is here introduced for the sake of convenience2.

The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is a huge territory inhabited by many divers races of men, and possessing several types of climate. One could no more scientifically compare the diseases found in the neighbourhood of Suakin with those prevalent in the Khartoum district than one could compare the latter with those occurring in the Bahr-El-Ghazal. On the Red Sea coast the climate is that of a littoral; it is the Northern Sudan climate modified by proximity to the sea. Round about Khartoum there exists, roughly speaking, a desert climate, somewhat modified by the presence of the two mighty rivers which unite immediately to the south of Omdurman. In the Bahr-El-Ghazal we meet with typically tropical conditions —a moist, humid atmosphere, a heavy rainfall, an abundant vegetation, many rivers, and much insect life. Minor differences exist in different parts of the different districts. Elevation above sea-level, as in Kordofan, plays a part, so does the area of cultivated land, as in the Dongola district, so does the presence (Kassala district) or absence (Gezira) of much bush country, so does the proximity to the great water-ways of this part of Africa. The incidence of disease is also affected by the distribution of population. The Northern Sudan, in addition to its Arabic and mixed Arabic and negro population, is peopled by British, Greeks, Italians, Turks, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, Copts, Abyssinians, and several 1 Journal of Tropical Medicine, 15/2/04 2 The following notes appeared in the Journal of Tropical Medicine, 15/4/04, and are here reproduced by the kind permission of the Editors of that journal