Xvi _ WORCESTER. 
human anatomy was taught in the anatomical laboratory, but 
later the anatomist in charge felt called upon to inaugurate 
other work in mammalian anatomy and in comparative anatomy 
as well. The histologist ultimately branched off into the em- 
bryology of the chick and began to talk about giving courses in 
comparative embryology. 
Here then, within the limits of a single institution, I had 
observed no less than five different laboratories, each with its 
staff of instructors, its library, its expensive instruments, ap- 
paratus, and reagents; each more or less undermanned and 
inadequately equipped; each duplicating or striving to dupli- 
cate work carried on in one or more of the others. The result 
was needless expense, lack of readily obtainable efficiency, and 
constant bickering. 
Furthermore, there had come to my attention rather startling 
instances of the duplication of scientific work in the depart- 
ments at Washington. 
While the complete lack of adequate facilities for carrying 
on imperatively necessary biological and chemical work which 
confronted us when civil government was organized in the 
Philippine Islands was appalling, I was nevertheless inclined to 
derive comfort from the old saying “Blessed be nothing,” for 
we had at least the opportunity to start right, unhampered by 
costly but antiquated equipment, by worthy but incompetent 
investigators, or by quarrels as to who should do what needed 
to be done. 
The materials with which to concoct a muddle worse than any 
of those with which I was already familiar lay ready to hand. 
At one time or another the Bureau of Customs has wished to 
establish a chemical laboratory and a so-called ‘microscopic 
laboratory.” The Bureau of Forestry has thought that it 
needed laboratories for chemical, botanical, and entomological 
work. The Bureau of Agriculture has urged precisely similar 
needs and has desired to take up bacteriological and pathological 
work as well. The original Board of Health and its successor, 
the Bureau of Health, have been disposed to demand laboratories 
in which to conduct both routine work and original investiga- 
