EXAMINATIONS OF STOOLS AND BLOOD AMONG THE 

 IGOROTS AT BAGUIO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 1 



By W. P. Chamberlain, H. D. Bloombergh, and E. D. Kilbourne. 2 



THE IGOKOT PEOPLE. 



The Igorots, commonly thought of only as head-hunters, are the 

 most remarkable of the wild tribes of the Philippines. Perhaps no savage 

 people lifts so extensively and laboriously built up such a system of ir- 

 rigation and intensive farming. In the deep valleys and cafions of the 

 rugged mountain ranges of northern Luzon they have constructed their 

 sementeras or terraces for the growing of rice and camotes, the latter 

 a vegetable allied to the sweet potato. These terraces are rock faced, 

 the surfaces are accurately leveled and diked, they ape irrigated by water 

 diverted from mountain streams and often carried in artificial channels 

 for considerable distances. The agricultural works of these people equal 

 or surpass those of the Japanese, with which many of us are more familiar. 

 The most notable examples of terracing are in the subprovince of Ifugao 

 and indicate that the Igorot possesses a high degree of engineering and 

 constructive skill. They were driven by necessity to this high develop- 

 ment in agriculture, owing to the rugged character of the country where 

 subsistence on the natural products of the soil was impossible and where 

 game and fish were relatively scarce. 



There are supposed to be 183,000, perhaps even 225,000 Igorots, divided 

 between many tribes, differing widely in customs, habits and dialects. ( 1 ) 

 It is thought by some that they belong to the first of the primitive 

 Malay tribes which invaded the Islands, displacing the aboriginal Ne- 

 gritos, and that later they were themselves driven to the refuge of the 

 mountains by more warlike maritime invaders. They have been but 

 little influenced by the Spanish civilization. 



THE IGOEOT COUNTRY. 



The region occupied by this people, although well within the Tropics, 

 possesses a temperate climate, the heat to be expected in low latitudes 



1 Published with permission of the chief surgeon, Philippines Division. 



- W. P. Chamberlain, major, Medical Corps, United States Army ; H. D. Bloom- 

 berg and E. D. Kilbourne, captains, Medical Corps,' United States Army, con- 

 stituting the United States Army Board for the Study of Tropical Diseases as 

 they exist in the Philippine Islands. 



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