12 ORGANIZATION AND BUILDINGS. 



the buildings and of properly equipping the different laboratories, 

 and of procuring a reference library. Pursuant to these directions 

 the Superintendent of Government Laboratories, soon after his 

 arrival in the Philippine Islands in September, 1901, with the 

 assistance of the Chief of the Insular Bureau of Architecture, Mr. 

 E. K. Bourne, and the Director of the Biological Laboratory, began 

 the preparation of the plans. 



Discussion of the proper type of building to be used for labo- 

 ratory purposes of various kinds, the question as to whether large 

 general rooms or small individual ones are more advantageous, the 

 consideration of the necessities for modern laboratory work, and 

 the other general phases of the struggle for perfection in laboratory 

 construction has of late occupied a considerable field in the delibera- 

 tions of scientific bodies, and it may be said that there are as many 

 views as to what is necessary and as to what means should be 

 employed to reach given ends in laboratory work as there are 

 laboratory workers. The day has gone by when scientific research 

 can be successfully conducted on the kitchen stove. Those things 

 which could be done with simple appliances and with simple or 

 imperfect equipment have been done. Modern scientific theories 

 and the facts upon which they are based are the product of inves- 

 tigation which uses every possible means to obtain the end sought, 

 and are based upon exact and accurate measurements. To accom- 

 plish such ends at the present time requires an equipment far 

 beyond that ever dreamed of, or possible, fifty years ago, and it is 

 because of this rapid development that the discussion of laboratory 

 construction has become an important one. As the new Govern- 

 ment Laboratories in Manila were to signalize a departure in the 

 policy of tropical governments, by uniting all laboratory work in 

 one bureau, and, as the buildings of necessity were designed to 

 meet many ends, it has been deemed not superfluous to describe 

 the structures as finally erected and to bring before the scientific 

 world such phases as may be new and interesting. 



The question as to whether the laboratory buildings should con- 

 tain large general rooms or should be composed of smaller apart- 

 ments for scientific work was decided in favor o| the latter method 

 of construction, for the following reasons: The Bureau is not 

 expected to handle large classes of students and consequently lec- 

 ture rooms could be omitted; and the variety of its work is such 



