10 ORGANIZATION AND BUILDINGS. 



question of the character of the foods and drinks, the analysis of 

 imported products which too frequently are adulterated, the deter- 

 mination of values for custom duties, the testing of the strength 

 of cements, the assaying of ores, and the performance of other 

 analytical work are necessary, and, as these regions are not sup- 

 plied with universities, analytical laboratories must be provided in 

 charge of the various governments. 



As the people depend upon products of the field and of the forests 

 for 'so large a proportion of their sustenance and barter, a knowl- 

 edge of the flora of the Tropics is essential, from both a scien- 

 tific and a material standpoint. It is necessary to be able to identify 

 plants which have once been encountered in order to understand 

 something of their distribution and general importance, to study 

 their growth, the conditions necessary for their best development, 

 and their diseases. Bureaus of forestry and agriculture must 

 depend upon botanical work to assist them in their duties. The 

 chemist, in investigating plant products, needs an identification of 

 the plants from which the latter come. For these reasons botanical 

 work becomes as essential as that in any other laboratory field. 



Tropical countries are, par excellence, those in which insect pests 

 are most frequent and widely distributed, so that the. means for 

 the study of entomology, facilities for classifying the material 

 gathered, and for ascertaining the nature of the insects most dan- 

 gerous to valuable flora should be at hand, and this need must be 

 met by the employment of entomologists and by providing space 

 for their work. 



Modern methods for the treatment of disease have become more 

 and more dependent upon serum therapy. The results obtained 

 with rinderpest in South Africa and in India, with plague prophy- 

 lactic in Japan, with cholera prophylactic in India and Japan, and 

 the necessity for vaccination against smallpox, at once suggest the 

 establishment of serum laboratories in tropical countries. Because 

 serums are perishable they can not very successfully be shipped 

 through long distances, and many of the tropical diseases which 

 yield either to serum prophylaxis or therapy are of such a nature 

 that the serums themselves can not be prepared except on the spot. 



Other branches of laboratory work readily suggest themselves as 

 being equally essential to the proper development of colonial enter- 

 prise. One of these would be a study of the fauna of the regions 

 in question, both marine and terrestrial. A laboratory for zoology 



