Health conditions of the native population in Ovamboland, and its bearing on the development of South West Africa

Abstract

Having had the appointment of District Surgeon and Examiner in the Territory of Ovamboland, of Native recruits, before they were allowed to proceed south to work in the Diamond Fields and Mines, and also farm labourers and men for Railway Construction work, it occurred to me that the following observations were sufficiently interesting, to form the foundation of a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, Edinburgh University.

At the same time I had the opportunity of observing medical treatment and its results, as applied to natives by the Medical Missionaries in the Territory, as well as the bearing it will have on the development of South West Africa, depending as it does on native labour from Ovamboland.

The distance and isolation of Ovamboland have precluded me from providing data and results of scientific and laboratory investigations, the facts given being merely clinical observations.