A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

7/6/26

Coverage

Freetown, British Colony, Sierra Leone

Transcription

July 6th

We arrived at Freetown last evening --a town of some 40,000 inhabitants situated at the foot or low hills. I took most of the party to see the Principal Medical Officer --P.M.O.-- Major Peacock who knew of my work in the Philippine Islands. From there we went to the Sir Robert Jones Laboratory where the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has their representatives. I went over with Dr. Blacklock in charge his work on the tumbu fly (Cordylobia) the larvae of which burrow in the skin. I also discussed with him his new work on the transmission of Onchocerca volvulus (a filaria which causes subcutaneous nodules) and which he thinks is transmitted by the bites of the Simulium damnosum, a small black fly. We will probably meet with the disease in Liberia and it is important for us either to confirm this method of transmission of find out whether this fly does actually play this role. If it does it is the first instance we know of any of the simulium flies transmitting disease, Formerly Simulium was thought to transmit pellagra but then found to be erroneous. We next went to the hospital. I ought to add that Dr. Gordon, who had formerly spent a year in Manaos (Amazonia) was also seen at the laboratory. He has been working on several nematode infections - anchylostoma, ascaris etc. - and finds that mild infections produce practically no symptoms among the indigenous blacks. We noted the same thing in the Philippine Islands some years ago. At the hospital we saw two women doctors who had only been out two months, They did not seem to know anything about the patients in the hospital or what was the matter with them. The only thing they seemed to know was that there were a number of cases with ulcerations on their legs. The hospital wards were coolly constructed and well screened. In the maternity wards the baby’s cradle is suspended across between the iron posts at the foot of the bed where the mother can see it swaying and perhaps dream that it is swinging in the trees. The old stone gate at the entrance to the part of the hospital which was burned last year bears the inscription, “Asylum for freed slaves rescued by British valor”. I had Loring take a picture of it. (Erected in 1820). We then returned to the ship and sailed immediately afterward.

Type

Diary

Citation