July 22, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



tained were used in locating plague houses. 



The cholera epidemic, which began on 

 March 20, 1902, and which was in the as- 

 cendent for six months, naturally threw a 

 large burden of work especially on the bio- 

 logical laboratory, whose etiological studies, 

 diagnoses and autopsies were the basis of 

 action by the board of health. The large 

 amount of routine work entailed thereby 

 interfered with extensive investigations in 

 the biireau, but the results have warranted 

 the time expended. 



The attention of the biological labora- 

 tory has also been devoted to surra, a dis- 

 ease generally attacking horses, and which 

 has caused many deaths in the islands. 

 The extensive investigations of the bureau 

 in this direction have been published in a 

 monograph. The results, just as in the 

 history of past efforts in this direction, 

 did not lead to a method of cure, but they 

 have nevertheless extended our knowledge 

 so as to prove that the disease may be har- 

 bored by rats and transferred by lice and 

 flies, th^it it is not conveyed by food, and 

 the researches have led to advice as regards 

 detection of affected animals and their de- 

 struction. It has also been shown that the 

 native water-buffalo, termed carabao, is 

 very susceptible and must be considered as 

 an important factor in the extension of the 

 infection. Surra infection has been one 

 of the greatest difficulties encountered in 

 the importation of draft animals from 

 China, and the isolation of large herds and 

 the endeavor to prevent its spread has been 

 a task of no little magnitude. 



The biological laboratory has also under- 

 taken investigations on the all-important 

 subject of human diseases, and is now pre- 

 paring for publication work on a method 

 of protective inoculation against Asiatic 

 cholera and on amcebic dysentery, and it 

 has been fortunate enough to encounter 

 and describe some new diseases. Research 



on beri-beri, plague, cholera, trypanoso- 

 miasis, etc., is also in progress. 



Th^ veterinarians and inoculators of the 

 insular government, with the exception of 

 the ones necessary for actual laboratory 

 work, have now been placed in a corps of 

 veterinarians under the direction of the 

 boai-d of health, of which body the super- 

 intendent of government laboratories is a 

 member, so that in the future the labora- 

 tories can, to a much greater extent, as- 

 sume their normal function of furnishing 

 prophylactic serums and diagnostic work, 

 while the actual details of inoculation, isola- 

 tion and destruction of infected animals 

 will become part of the duty of the board 

 of health. By this improvement the di- 

 rectors of the biological and serum labo- 

 ratories and the employees in those divis- 

 ions will be able to devote a larger amount 

 of time to investigation and research in 

 the lines which properly fall within their 

 scope. 



As the policy of the government was to 

 provide laboratories which would be of 

 maximum usefulness to the people, it was 

 decided more than a year ago to permit the 

 general public to call upon the bureau for 

 analytical and diagnostic work at reason- 

 able and fixed charges to be imposed in re- 

 turn for the results obtained. This priv- 

 ilege has been taken advantage of by the 

 public to a considerable extent, and a large 

 variety of work has come to the bureau as 

 a consequence. The other bureaus of the 

 government, such as the custom-house, 

 bureau of agriculture, bureau of mines, etc., 

 have occasion to use the laboratory very 

 frequently to obtain analytical results of 

 all kinds, and as a result the chemical labo- 

 ratory has gradually developed a corps of 

 analysts who are accurate, careful and ca- 

 pable of handling the work. In addition 

 an endeavor has been made to begin sys- 

 tematic investigations, and the first results 

 of such endeavor have appeared in a bul- 



