IQ THE BUREAU OF SCIENCE 



pate the needs of the country in order to determine which investi- 

 gations should be carried on first, and certain problems require 

 years for completion, so that much of the work becomes most 

 useful at a later date. It is in the nature of the case that our 

 work must precede the establishment of large industries and 

 consultations with, and advice to, the public and other branches 

 of the Government requiring scientific knowledge of a specialized 

 character. A large amount of the research of this Bureau has 

 been made available in our publications which to date comprise 

 20,000 printed pages, 2,000 illustrative plates, and nearly 1,000 

 text figures. 



RESUME OF THE RESEARCHES OF THE BUREAU OF SCIENCE 



To give in a few pages a complete account of the investigations 

 carried on by this Bureau would be impossible. The space which 

 I propose to devote to this would not adequately record the ac- 

 complishments of a single division or section. For instance, to 

 describe the work of the biological laboratory of this Bureau 

 would be to write no small part of the history of the development 

 of tropical medicine during the past twelve years. I desire to 

 emphasize, however, that there is extensive information in the 

 Bureau of Science which would effect a large annual saving to 

 the inhabitants of these Islands if it were utilized, as shown in 

 the following abstract of the work of the Bureau. 



1. General. — Specimens of plants have been imported at con- 

 siderable expense that might just as well have been secured in 

 the Philippine Islands and in many cases in the city of Manila 

 itself. Some living plants infested with various fungus diseases 

 have been imported, and the introduction of such diseases might 

 have been avoided if the plants had been submitted to this Bureau 

 for examination. Some of the dam sites could have been more 

 advantageously chosen had the geologist been consulted when the 

 work was projected. At least one gold mill which cost several 

 hundred thousand pesos now stands idle in the Philippines be- 

 cause there were no previous tests to show the kind of mill 

 adapted to the ore. Investigation of one operating mill in the 

 Philippines showed that a saving could be made of nearly T5 per 

 ton of ore treated or about f*=94,000 per annum. Geologic inves- 

 tigations of artesian water show infeasible projects and prevent 

 unwise expenditures. The specifications for a large Government 

 building required a 1:2:4 concrete mixture. The mixture was 

 found to give poor results. The cement and aggregate were care- 

 fully studied by this Bureau, and it was found that a 1:2:5 mix- 

 ture gave better results and was more satisfactory than the 1:2:4 



