﻿THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



B. Medical Sciences 



Vol II MAY, 1907 No. 2 



A CONSIDERATION OF SOME OF THE MODERN THEORIES 

 IN RELATION TO IMMUNITY. 



By Paul C. Freer. 1 



In opening the past annual meetings of the Association it has been 

 customary for the president to call attention to the advances which have 

 been made in matters relating to the medical sciences in the Philippine 

 Islands during the year just completed, and while my purpose is to 

 discuss considerations relating more closely to scientific studies which 

 may serve to increase the efficiency of prophylaxis in the future, it is 

 not out of place briefly to review what has been accomplished since the 

 last reunion of the members of this association. 



The outbreak of cholera which was accompanied by the fear that it 

 would once more take on the dimensions of the ones that have swept 

 the Islands in the past, has disappeared; cases of plague' are no longer 

 encountered ; smallpox is reduced to a minimum and by reason of efficient 

 vaccination any future serious occurrences of this disease need not be 

 feared; improved individual hygiene among a certain proportion of the 

 population has lessened the frequency of dysentery. Hygienically, there- 

 fore, we are in a better condition than we were a year ago. The discovery 

 of the prevalence of trematode infections is another advance which event- 

 ualty will lead to the adoption of measures destined to bring about at 

 least a partial curtailment of the number of persons affected ; studies in 

 the habits and breeding places of the mosquitoes, which have been 



' 1 The address of the president: Read at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the 

 Philippine Islands Medical Association, Manila, February 27, 1907. 



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