in drafting sanitary laws for submission to the commission. A vigorous campaign against bubonic plague has been inaugurated, and as a result this disease has almost completely disappeared. A system of inspection has been put in force which is so complete as to render it well-nigh impossible for a case of plague to occur without the knowledge of the board of health. A war of extermination is being waged against rats, which are known to play an important part in propagating plague.

No case of smallpox has originated in the city of Manila since January 1, 1901.

The greatest source of mortality is pulmonary tuberculosis, which has caused 168 deaths during the past two months. It is most prevalent among the very poor, who live crowded together under very unsanitary conditions. Measures are now being taken to ascertain the exact whereabouts of all persons in Manila suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, with a view to the possible establishment of a consumptive colony outside the city limits for those cases where danger of infecting others is greatest.

The commissioner of public health has taken charge of the leper hospitals of the archipelago, which are located at Cebu, Iloilo, and Palestina (Ambos Camarines), respectively. They contain, all told, some 500 lepers. A leper census of the islands is being taken, with a view to the eventual segregation of all persons suffering from this disease on the isolated but fertile and healthful island of Cagayan de Jolo, where they can be given better care, allowed greater liberty, and made more contented than when confined in hospitals. It is believed that with the income derived from property already set aside for the support of lepers, and with the agricultural work which those in the early stages of the disease would be glad to perform, if given opportunity, a leper colony might be established at comparatively little expense to the insular government. The number of lepers in the archipelago has been estimated to be as high as 30,000, but the commissioner of public health, who has had wide opportunity for observation, expresses the belief that there are less than 10,000 of them.

Rinderpest and plagues of locusts have been widespread during the past year. Rinderpest is now rapidly disappearing, probably as a result of the diminution of cattle, due to its ravages. At the request of the governors of several provinces, experts have been sent by the board of health to instruct the Filipinos in the method of making post-mortems and of inoculations of gall from diseased animals for the immunization of healthful animals.

A partially successful attempt has been made to introduce African fungus disease among locusts. The material used by the board of health was obtained from Negros, where it had produced excellent results. A fresh stock of pure fungus culture will be obtained at the earliest prac

ticable time and the disease will be propagated among locust swarms wherever found.

Medical assistance is furnished to indigent natives in the city of Manila by employees of the board of health, and it is hoped that, with the extension of the service of the board to provinces and municipalities outside of Manila, it will become practicable to relieve the worst cases of suffering throughout the islands. For a further description of the work of the board of health since August 1, 1901, reference is made to the report of the commissioner of public health, which is appended hereto as Appendix M.

CIVIL HOSPITAL.

A thoroughly equipped modern public civil hospital has long been one of the crying needs of the city of Manila, and the necessity has become steadily more urgent with the increase in the number of American civilians resident in the Philippines. On June 27, 1901, you were requested by cable to authorize the purchase of the buildings formerly used by the military as the "second reserve hospital" and the large lot on which this building stands, at a cost of $235,000, including equipment and repairs. Your authorization for this transaction was received, but unfortunately the owners refused to sell the property at a fair price.

The Women's Hospital of Manila, founded by Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, with beds for 15 patients, has afforded relief to a number of the most serious cases among civilians and has saved not a few lives; but the accommodations which it affords have been utterly inadequate to meet our needs, and the high charge necessarily made for the excellent food and nursing furnished there have been prohibitive for many of the civil employees.

As a temporary expedient, an attending physician and surgeon and an assistant attending physician and surgeon were employed to treat civil officers and employees and members of their families, either at an office established in the ayuntamiento, or at the homes of the patients, or at the Women's Hospital, as seemed best, and medical and surgical treatment and medical supplies were furnished free of charge.

After months of delay, a fairly good building, large enough to accommodate 100 beds, has been secured, equipped, and opened to receive patients. Emergency cases among all classes of residents will be received there at all times, and should the accommodations which it affords prove more than adequate for treating the sick among civil officers, employees, and their families, all beds unoccupied will be made. available for other civilians. This hospital is supported by the insular government. A charge of $1 per day is imposed on patients in wards, while those who desire private rooms pay from $10 to $20 per week for them, in addition to the $1 per day. Patients may be exempted from

any payment, should their circumstances render this course desirable. While this is a distinct step in advance, it must of necessity be but a temporary expedient. A large, well-equipped, modern hospital must be provided in the near future.

GOVERNMENT LABORATORIES.

The day has passed when any government can afford to attempt to get on without laboratories for scientific investigation, and the need of such laboratories has long been urgent in the Philippine Islands. In connection with the work of the insular board of health there must be a suitable biological laboratory for the certain diagnosis of typhoid and malarial fevers, tuberculosis, bubonic plague, different kinds of dysentery, and other diseases in which the microscope affords the only satisfactory means of early and final diagnosis. There must also be adequate facilities for the production of the vaccine virus, serums, and prophylactics necessary to combat the diseases of this country, while the careful study of those of our more dangerous diseases for which satisfactory remedies or means of prevention have not yet been found is a work of the utmost importance. The board of health must also have facilities for carrying on chemical work in urinary analysis in cases of supposed poisoning, in the analysis of drinking waters, and especially in the detection of harmful adulterations in foods and drinks, which are extremely common in this country.

The bureau of agriculture also has need of laboratories in which it may investigate the diseases and may study the enemies of plants and animals useful to man, and may seek remedies for such diseases and means of combating such enemies. It must also have opportunity to investigate the composition of soils and fertilizers, the amount and quality of sugar in cane grown under varying conditions, and the numerous other conditions demanding determination which constantly present themselves in the practical work of such a bureau.

With the wealth of medicinal drugs and herbs, resins, gums, and rubber and gutta-percha producing vines and trees which these islands afford, chemical work as to the value of these products and the best methods of obtaining them is of great value to our commerce and to the forestry bureau, as is the investigation of the more valuable essential oils obtained from plants or flowers grown here. The oil of the "champaca," a flower which grows here very readily, is worth approximately $1,000 an ounce, but no satisfactory method of distilling it has as yet been obtained. Chemical investigation would doubtless solve this problem.

The development of the mineral resources of the Philippine Islands is in its earliest stages, and the mining bureau can not do proper work unless suitable facilities are provided for analysis and assaying. There are very numerous minero-medicinal springs in the archipelago, many

of which have reputed therapeutic value, and the determination of the properties of these minero-medicinal waters is another matter of importance.

Questions frequently arise in the custom-house which can be settled only by an expert chemist.

It is needless to discuss the necessity or the value of the work above outlined, but one or two practical illustrations of it may be given. These islands have just suffered from an epidemic of rinderpest, which in some provinces has destroyed more than 90 per cent of the cattle, reducing former cattle owners to poverty and preventing agriculturists from tilling the soil. In several provinces actual starvation has resulted, and the insular government has been compelled to inaugurate public works or to directly contribute food in order to succor the hungry. Meanwhile, the board of health has, in its inadequately equipped laboratory, worked out a method of using the bile of animals which have died from rinderpest to immunize those not yet attacked which has proved highly successful. Had it been elaborated and put into effect a little sooner the people of the country might have been saved the loss of millions of dollars' worth of property and the Government would have been spared the necessity of protecting itself and the more fortunate of its people against men driven to robbery and brigandage by sheer desperation.

Some time since the Manila board of health had under consideration a question involving the destruction of $50,000 worth of alcoholic. drinks, alleged to contain very harmful impurities. A mistaken analysis might have resulted in the necessity of the board's paying very heavy damages.

It was not strange that laboratories began to spring up in the several bureaus and departments of the insular government, and as an inevitable consequence of their number they were in a fair way to be undermanned, improperly equipped with apparatus and chemicals, and without adequate library facilities.

With a view to providing against the perpetuation of the small and poorly equipped laboratories, which would have resulted in a needless expense, loss of space for laboratory installation, and duplication of instruments, apparatus, books, and even of investigations carried on and of experts to make such investigations, act No. 156 was passed by the commission. It provides for the establishment at Manila of a biological and chemical laboratory, to be suitably equipped for doing all the biological and chemical work necessary for the proper carrying on of the work of the several departments and bureaus, and to have adequate library facilities, so that the work of all the departments may be done to the best possible advantage. A temporary building has been rented until a suitable permanent structure can be erected, and important investigations are in progress.

When these laboratories are thoroughly equipped and suitably housed, it is purposed to afford opportunity each year for a few experts from the United States to come here and carry on investigations. The commission has definitely ascertained that several such men, of national reputation, would be glad to avail themselves of an opportunity for investigation here for a year or more if allowed their bare expenses. By securing their services in this way the insular government would be greatly benefited and at a minimum expense.

PHILIPPINES CONSTABULARY.

In its last report to the Secretary of War, the commission presented its views at some length upon the question whether native troops and native police should be used in establishing and maintaining order in the islands and whether they could with safety be largely substituted for American soldiers.

Among the reasons given for reaching an affirmative conclusion, the undesirability of maintaining a large army of Americans in the islands, both on the score of public policy and economy, was pointed out. Attention was called to the fact that such resistance to American authority, as then existed, was in no sense an organized war, but merely the resistance of guerrilla and ladrone bands, generally hiding in obscure mountain fastnesses and making desultory attacks on small bodies of our men, usually without effect, dispersing when hard pressed and assuming the rôle of inoffensive noncombatants.

It was further shown that a double rôle of this sort was possible with American soldiers, who found it difficult to distinguish one Filipino from another, were unacquainted with their language and habits, and had no means of acquiring an accurate knowledge of their movements, but that native troops and police would experience no such difficulty and could be readily enabled to put an end to such methods. The commission further directed attention to the fact that the masses of the people were anxious for peace and quiet and ready to accept American sovereignty, but as matters then stood they were terrorized and often forced into an attitude of hostility which they did not feel, and that organizing troops and police from their own people would inspire them with confidence and courage and convince them that they could best protect themselves by actively aiding the civil and military authorities. The objection made as to the loyalty and effectiveness of native troops and police was discussed and the conclusion reached that it was without foundation.

The commission has now had nearly a year within which to make further observations as to the characteristics, habits, and customs of the natives and as to the most effective methods to be pursued in reestablishing and maintaining order, and begs to say that subsequent investigation and reflection have confirmed the views originally