656 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN" INSTITUTION, 1917 



part in its work, especially in collecting information relative to the 

 present and former status of the mammalian fauna of the State. 

 Toward the close of the year 1900, he suffered a nervous breakdown, 

 probably complicated by earlier attacks of malaria, and was granted 

 several months' sick leave, part of which time he passed in Florida 

 in an effort to regain his health. Three months or more were spent 

 in camp in the Kissimmee prairie region, and while there, in Feb- 

 ruary, 1901, he received notice of his advancement to surgeon, with 

 the rank of major. Upon his return in May, much benefited by his 

 outdoor life, he stopj)ed at Washington and devoted several weeks 

 to a study of the series of jaguars and other tropical American 

 cats at the National Museum, the results of which appeared in a 

 number of papers published during the next few months. 



At Fort Yellowstone, where he was on duty in 1902, he was particu- 

 larly active in gathering botanical material. It was here that he 

 became aware of the destruction of bird and animal life through 

 the presence of a heavy gas, supposed to be carbon dioxide, which 

 settled in certain depressions and cavities of the earth, causing the 

 death of all small animals that ventured into them. In the course 

 of a few months he detected 16 species of birds, numbering many 

 individuals, that had perished in this manner, and he was of the 

 opinion that " hundreds, if not thousands " died from this cause dur- 

 ing the year. He recorded the observations made here in a paper 

 entitled "Feathers beside the Styx";^ and, before leaving the park, 

 he requested the superintendent to have the most dangerous spots 

 provided with wire screens to prevent the birds entering them. 



Military service in the Philippines, which he visited in 1903-1904 

 and again in 1905-1907, afforded Doctor Mearns his first oppor- 

 tunity to study nature in an entirely new dress. The islands 

 possessed a rich and varied fauna, with many areas still unexplored 

 or but slightly known, while many problems bearing on the distribu- 

 tion of species within the group remained to be solved. He was 

 largely responsible for the formation of the " Philippine Scientific 

 Association," a society organized on July 27, 1903, and having as 

 its chief object the promotion of scientific effort in the Philippine 

 Islands. It was begun under the presidency of Major General 

 Leonard Wood, a broad-minded officer, who encouraged ever^?^ form 

 of scientific endeavor. Mearns was a most active member of this 

 league from its inception, and his quiet but effective powers of 

 persuasion, and his ability to enthuse others were the means of 

 securing much material and information for later study. During 

 the year covered by his first visit, he served as surgeon in the mili- 

 tary department of Mindanao, where his time was fully occupied, 



1 Condor, V, 1903, 36-38. 



