01782nas a2200277   4500000000100000008004100001260000900042653001100051653000900062653001600071653002600087653001200113653001700125653001800142653002300160653001900183653001400202653002200216653001900238100001400257245007800271300001100349490000700360520112300367022001401490       2000                            d  c200010aAfrica10aAsia10aColonialism10aHistory, 20th Century10aleprosy10aMissionaries10aPublic health10aReligious Missions10aSocial Welfare10aSocieties10aTropical Medicine10aUnited Kingdom1 aWorboys M00aThe colonial world as mission and mandate: leprosy and empire, 1900-1940.  a207-180 v153 a<p>The history of medicine in twentieth-century empires has been dominated by studies of "imperial tropical medicine" (ITM) and its consequences. Historians have been fascinated by the work of medical scientists and doctors in the age of high imperialism, and there are many studies of medicine as a "tool of empire." This paper reviews work that explores colonial medicine as a broader enterprise than ITM in three spheres: missionary activity, modernization, and protection of the health and welfare of indigenous peoples. To illustrate the themes of mission and mandate, it discusses the development of policies to control leprosy in the tropical African and Asian colonies of Britain in the first half of this century, especially the work of the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association (BELRA). Although BELRA's efforts did little to change imperial medical and health agendas, they had an important impact locally and ideologically, and show how closely interwoven the themes of Christian caring, medical humanism, colonial development, and welfare policy had become by the outbreak of the Second World War.</p>  a0369-7827