﻿180 



The Philippine Journal of Science 



1914 



per cent of the efficiency as compared with the normal ability 

 of an average healthy Filipino would be a conservative estimate 

 of conditions in this respect found in Mindoro. There are 

 several reasons for this low state of nutrition and development 

 in addition to that part of it which is explained by the high 

 incidence of malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases. 



The principal factors concerned in the production of this in- 

 efficiency are the habits and customs of the people, particularly 

 the poor quality and small amount of food consumed by the 

 average Filipino of the working classes. The low efficiency 

 stated is based on the general appearance of the people, their 

 early exhaustion and inability to perform a reasonable amount 

 of manual labor, and upon certain physical findings and a series 

 of haemoglobin estimates. The relation of the percentage of 

 haemoglobin estimates to enlarged spleens is shown in Table IX. 



Table IX. — Relation of the percentage of haemoglobin estimates to 



enlarged spleen. 



Haemoglobin 

 estimates. 



Cases of 



enlarged 



spleen. 



Persons. 



Per cent 

 of haemo- 

 globin. 



91 



100 



13 



81 



90 



47 



71 



80 



78 



61 



70 81 1 



51 



60 



32 



41 



50 



6 



31 



40 



2 



Not recorded 



32 







291 



Examination of this table indicates that malaria as determined 

 by enlarged spleen is not the principal factor in the reduction of 

 haemoglobin percentage, neither is this true with regard to tuber- 

 culosis. The condition is more far reaching and has to do, as 

 stated above, with the poor nutrition and under development of 

 the people as a whole. 



Intimately associated with the lowered vascular tone mentioned 

 above, either as cause or as effect, is the high incidence in mal- 

 nutrition; and the results of this malnutrition, obviously, are 

 both mechanical and toxic. The causes of malnutrition are two. 

 First, an economic condition which makes it impossible for 

 people of the working classes properly to nourish themselves and 



