. . . We are enjoying the life in Manila very much and I will 261 

 have to drag my family home. They wish that we were to be 

 here for two years instead of one. We get out week-ends for 

 sketching when the weather permits. I cannot see that I have 

 improved much. The wet season was quite wet. Two weeks 

 ago the centre of a typhoon came up to within thirty miles of 

 the city & then, fortunately, swerved north. Typhoon signals 

 jumped from 4 to 7 in a few hours and everyone ran home to 

 make things fast. The floods put our water supply out of com- 

 mission breaking the main thirty feet under the Mariquina 

 river. They got a temporary supply of raw water installed & 

 now the city has heavily chlorinated but still much polluted 

 & muddy water. The local health office has gone in extensively 

 in vaccinating the city population against typhoid, dysentery 

 & cholera. They use a serum-sensitized vaccine. One cannot 

 rely on their statistics however, for they are handicapped by 

 inefficiency. This school of hygiene is their hope. ... I have 

 become interested in isolating acid- fasts from nature. Next 

 week I try cultures from leprosy. 



I had a nice letter from Rockwell and I can see that you 

 have done things to improve the department and I am grateful 

 to you for it. "While I am enjoying this, I am already anxious 

 to get back to my old friends. 



Two weeks later he wrote me (September 28, 1929) : 



I felt encouraged last week-end over a picture I got at Nova- 

 leches, of mountains, lake, and plumed grass. — Margaret got 

 a bad throat & has been laid low for ten days. She developed 

 a curious membrane and while I could not find diphtheria 

 bacilli, I got worried when it did not yield to gentian violet 

 or acriflavin. I called in Dr Watrous. He said he had not seen 

 a throat like it before, but tried 5 % silver nitrate & it cleared 

 right away. It pays to call the doctor early! 



We have enjoyed the company of young Dr Ralph Wheeler 

 — son of the ant man of the Bussey institute. Ralph was a 

 member of the Roosevelt expedition to Indo-China & came 

 here to get treatment for malaria. He has been collecting the 

 swifts of the P I. He doesn't care to practice and is undecided 

 about the future but thinks he will go in for some branch of 

 public health where his zoological instincts will have a chance. 



