It has long been evident that a considerable extension of the service by the establishment of new stations was needed, if thoroughly reliable and timely storm warnings were to be furnished. A plan for an adequate system of stations and for the equipment required by each was prepared by the director of the observatory and submitted to the Chief of the United States Weather Bureau for approval. It has been adopted as approved by the commission, and act No. 131, providing for the establishment of a weather bureau for the Philippine Islands and making the necessary appropriations for the purchase of meteorological instruments and apparatus and their installation, has been passed in order to put this plan into effect. This act makes it obligatory upon the chief of the bureau to send daily weather forecasts and storm warnings to the captains of all ports in the archipelago which are in telegraphic communication with Manila, and to the officers of the insular government and the heads of all civil departments and bureaus in Manila, and to send special telegraphic storm warnings to any seriously threatened districts in the archipelago whenever practicable; also to send warnings of dangerous storms to China, Formosa, and Japan. The central station of the bureau is the Manila Observatory, and the instruments, instrument rooms and tower, library, printing room, lithographing room, printing presses, and type of this institution are rented by the insular government at $375 per month. The act further provides for the establishment of 9 first-class stations, 25 second-class stations, 17 third-class stations, and 20 rain stations, which are so distributed as to cover the entire archipelago. First-class stations have already been established at Aparri, in Cagayan; San Fernando, Union; Baguio, Benguet; Dagupan, Pangasinan; Ormoc, Leyte; Iloilo, province of Iloilo; Cebu, province of Cebu, and Zamboanga, district of Zamboanga. Second-class stations have been established at San Isidro, Nueva Ecija; Capiz, province of Capiz; Tacloban, Leyte; Maasin, Leyte; Tagbilaran, Bohol, and Butuan, in the province of Surigao, Mindanao. One third-class station has been established at Surigao, the capital of the province of the same name. For a further account of the recent work of the bureau reference is made to the report of the director to the Secretary of the Interior, which appears as Appendix L. PUBLIC HEALTH. If any further demonstration of the fact that the climate of the Philippine Islands is unusually healthful for a tropical country was needed, it has been afforded by the remarkably low sick rate during the past year among troops scattered in hundreds of municipalities throughout the archipelago. It has been stated that large numbers of soldiers have become insane here, and in some quarters this fact has been attributed to the climate. The truth is that the large majority of cases of insanity among the soldiers have been produced by drinking so-called "vino," which has been shown by chemical analysis to contain in some instances as high as 17 per cent of fusil oil, and is therefore a deadly poison. Although the climate must, on the whole, be considered good, the presence of bubonic plague in the city of Manila and its appearance in several adjacent towns; the fact that smallpox still prevails in r any of the provinces, and will continue to do so until a general system of public vaccination has been inaugurated; the occurrence of scattered groups of lepers, many of whom are now living without medical assistance and without control; the necessity of combating malarial and other fevers and the several varieties of dysentery which occur here, together with rinderpest among the cattle, and last but not least the absolute ignorance of or disregard for the most axiomatic hygienic laws which prevails in most of the municipalities, combine to cause abundant need of an insular board to have general charge of the health interests of the archipelago. Such a board was created by act No. 157. It consists of a commissioner of public health, a sanitary engineer (who is also the city engineer of Manila), a chief health inspector, a secretary of the board, and, ex officio, the superintendent of government laboratories. The chief surgeon of the United States Army in the Philippine Islands, the chief officer of the United States Marine-Hospital Service in the Philippine Islands, and the president and vice-president of the Association of Physicians and Pharmacists of the Philippine Islands are honorary members of this board. It has been given wide powers, which are believed to be adequate for the proper safe-guarding of the public health, and has been directed to prepare and submit to the commission necessary sanitary legislation and legislation providing for the extension of the public-health service into the several provinces and municipalities. The sanitary condition of Manila is such as to make an efficient local health board most necessary. The city stands on very low and rather flat ground; it has never had a sewer system, and as a result the soil has become infiltrated with impurities. The tidal streams or "esteros," which branch out through the city from the Pasig River, are practically open sewers and form a constant menace to the public health. Many of the buildings are improperly constructed and badly overcrowded. In order to insure efficiency and render impossible any clash of authority, which might result harmfully for the public interest, the board of health for the Philippines has been made also the local board for the city of Manila and has been doing efficient work. It was not found practicable to fill the office of chief health inspector until the 1st of August. Since then the board has been actively engaged in improving the health conditions of the city of Manila and |