280 GEOGRAPHIC MISCELLANEA 



The Johns Hopkins University has sent a medical expedition to Manila 

 for the purpose of studying the characteristics of tropical diseases as they 

 may be observed in the Philippine islands. Two of the professors in the 

 Johns Hopkins Medical School, Dr Simon Flexner and Dr L. F. Barker, 

 both of them highly trained pathologists of wide professional repute, 

 volunteered for this service. They go well equipped with the best appa- 

 ratus for pathological and clinical observations. They carry letters of in- 

 troduction from officers of the government at Washington. Two medical 

 students well advanced in their studies, Joseph M. Flint, of Chicago, and 

 Frederick P. Gay, of Boston, ai-e members of the party, and Mr J. W. 

 Garrett, of Baltimore, is also a member. The expenses are defrayed by 

 generous contributions from five Baltimore merchants. The party sailed 

 from Vancouver for Manila, by way of Yokohama and Hongkong. Sev- 

 eral days were passed in Japan, where Professor Aoyama, in Tokyo, gave 

 them special opportunities for observing certain cases of disease in the 

 hospitals of that city. Upon reaching Manila, Drs Flexner and Barker 

 commenced work at once, their inquiries being facilitated by the coop- 

 eration of Colonel Woodhull, M. D., U. S. A. In Manila there are two 

 large army hospitals, the first and second reserve, the civil hospital under 

 Dr Bournes (who accompanied Prof. Dean C. Worcester in his travels 

 through the islands), the prison hospital at Cavite, and a convalescent 

 hospital at Corregidor. 



In " The Race for the North Pole," which appears in the June Munsey, 

 Gen. A. W. Greely reviews the work of the three explorers, Peary and 

 Wellman, Americans, and Sverdrup, Norwegian, who are trying to reach 

 the Pole. Of the three explorers, Peary and Sverdrup have followed 

 what is known as the American polar route by the channels leading from 

 Baffin bay northward along the west coast of Greenland to the polar 

 ocean. As to the probability of their success, General Greely states : 

 " There are two phases of the question — first, whether the waterways to 

 the west of Greenland are so ice-free as to justify the belief that either 

 the Windward or the Fram can round the northwestern point of Green- 

 land and enter St George's fiord ; and, second, the possibility of the Fram 

 circumnavigating Greenland, and that of either Peary or Sverdrup reach- 

 ing the Pole by sledge journeys." Even should an open ice season per- 

 mit either ship to reach St George's fiord, of which judging from past 

 history there is little probability, it would never be able to leave the 

 fiord. From St George's fiord the explorers could easily reach Cape 

 Washington, the most northerly known land, 83° 2V (gained by the 

 Greely expedition), whence they would have a journey of 300 miles each 

 way over the ice pack, or a distance three times greater than that cov- 

 ered by Nansen after leaving his ship. General Greely believes that Well- 

 man, who has chosen the Franz Josef Land route, has the most difficult 

 task before him. " The difficulties of ice travel are very much greater 

 in the case of Wellman than of either Peary or Sverdrup. The distance 

 over the frozen sea from the northernmost point of Franz Josef Land 

 to the Pole and back again cannot be much less than 1,000 miles, and 

 no reader who has studied the narrative of Markham or Nansen can be- 

 lieve that such a journey is within human power in a single season." 



