Imperial Medicine in a Changing World: The Fourth International Congresses on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, 1948.

The close connections between colonialism and tropical medicine have been widely discussed by historians over the last fifty years. However, few authors consider the relationship between tropical medicine and European and North American imperialism in the immediate post-World War II period. This article examines the Fourth International Congresses on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held jointly in Washington in 1948. Using the research presented during the conference, it questions to what degree the specialisation had changed in the postwar period. It argues that although some changes are discernable, imperial traditions and relationships remained firmly embedded within the tropical medicine of the congress.