8 ORGANIZATION AND BUILDINGS. 



of any measures of prevention, however expensive. For the pur- 

 pose of diagnosis and for the further study of methods of prophy- 

 laxis and cure, a biological laboratory, properly equipped, is an 

 essential. The work is of so difficult a nature, so important, and, 

 if imperfect methods are used, so subject to error, that a poor 

 equipment both in the literature of medical biology and in appa- 

 ratus would be the precursor of failure. The appliances must be of 

 the best, the literature on all branches of the work must be at 

 hand, and the bacteriologists performing the diagnoses must 

 have a thorough and complete training. However, bacteriological 

 laboratories in the Tropics must not confine themselves to subjects 

 of diagnosis they must also be expected to make advances by 

 research on special subjects of importance, and they must con- 

 tinually enlarge their field by the observation of interesting or new 

 diseases which may come to their attention, because it can never 

 be predicted that an apparently harmless malady which is imper- 

 fectly known may not eventually assume serious proportions. In 

 so doing the laboratories can guard the public by timely warnings. 

 Each tropical colony presents different conditions, different phases 

 of the same disease, and even new and unknown infections. The 

 prevention of the spread of any disease must presuppose a per- 

 fect knowledge of its etiology and of the other factors which enter 

 into its prevention and treatment, and such knowledge can only be 

 gained by an investigation of the subject based upon a study of the 

 literature and supplemented by new investigations in the laboratory. 

 Research in the field outlined above demands the highest type of 

 trained investigators, a complete library, and exceptional facilities. 

 The value of this class of work is so universally recognized that 

 governments in the past have organized expensive expeditions to 

 tropical countries for the purpose of increasing the world's knowl- 

 edge of the diseases peculiar to those regions. However, such 

 expeditions can not possibly carry with them all the materials for 

 their work without encountering great difficulties which rob them 

 both of time and opportunity, and their results would be far more 

 beneficial if they could come to permanent stations. 



For a properly equipped biological laboratory there are neces- 

 sary not only adequate rooms, well lighted without direct sunlight, 

 but also apparatus such as microscopes, incubators, sterilizers, 

 microtomes, surgical instruments, glassware of all kinds, stains, 

 chemicals, and small animals. The latter, such as guinea pigs, 



