﻿IX, B, 2 Sanitary Survey in Mindoro 161 



Having in mind the most important cause of sickness at San 

 Jose, malaria, the following factors deserve special consideration : 

 (1) Lack of disposition on the part of the infected people to 

 seek medical attendance; (2) lack of authority on the part of 

 the doctors and company officials to compel hospitalization of 

 the sick and adequate after-treatment; (3) inadequate hospital 

 facilities and medical forces; and (4) lack of confidence on the 

 part of the medical staff of its ability to cure malaria and to 

 maintain medical surveillance and control over out-patients. 



1. Lack of disposition on the part of the people to seek medical 

 attendance. — The attitude may be explained in part by native 

 superstition and ignorance, together with dread of the routine 

 method of medication for malaria practiced at the hospital; 

 namely, iced baths and hypodermatic injections. A significant 

 matter in connection with this lack of disposition to go to the 

 hospital is the fact that upon admission to the hospital the pay 

 of the employee stops. 



The remedies for this condition of apathy are (a) education 

 (entirely too slow for our present purpose), (6) compulsory 

 hospitalization, (c) modification of the routine treatment so as 

 to be less terrifying to the superstitious native, and (d) con- 

 tinuance of pay of employees while in the hospital. 



2. Lack of authority, on the part of the doctors and company 

 officials, to compel attendance at the hospital by the sick, and lack 

 of adequate after-treatment. — It must be admitted that this con- 

 dition seems to be a purely fictitious one. It is difficult to under- 

 stand why a vast corporation, owning its land and villages; 

 controlling transportation to and from its own estates ; furnish- 

 ing houses, rent free, to its employees ; maintaining timekeepers, 

 overseers, sanitary policemen, practicantes, and a hospital sys- 

 tem, is powerless to enforce the proper treatment of these 

 laborers when they are sick. 



Yet I have for my authority the specific statement of the 

 company's surgeon that he is entirely unable to enforce 

 proper hospitalization and out-patient treatment. In reply to 

 my question, "What means of enforcing hospital attendance of 

 your laborers and detention for a suitable period of time have 

 you ?" he answered, "Absolutely none." One can only explain this 

 alleged condition by two alternative hypotheses. One is, that 

 the corporation fears to lose some of its laborers by insisting 

 upon proper medical treatment and that it prefers to maintain 

 the number at a certain figure, even though many are diseased 

 and inefficient (for it must, of course, be aware that efficiency 



