762 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 542. 



Philippine Islands, but of the people of 

 this country and of the world. Only pre- 

 liminary explorations have yet been made 

 in the archipelago, and it should be a mat- 

 ter of pride to the government of the 

 United States fvilly to investigate and to 

 describe the entire region. So far as may 

 be convenient and practical, the work of 

 this survey should be conducted in har- 

 mony with that of the proper bureaus of 

 the government of the Philippines, but it 

 should not be under the control of the 

 authorities in the Philippine Islands, for it 

 should be undertaken as a national work 

 and subject to a board to be appointed by 

 Congress or the President. The plan trans- 

 mitted recommends simultaneous surveys 

 in different branches of research, organized 

 on a cooperative system. This would tend 

 to completeness, avoid duplication, and 

 render the work more economical than if 

 the exploration were undertaken piecemeal. 

 No such organized surveys have ever yet 

 been attempted anywhere, but the idea is 

 in harmony with modern scientific and in- 

 dustrial methods. 



I recommend, therefore, that provision 

 be made for the appointment of a board of 

 .surveys to superintend the national surveys 

 and explorations to be made in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, and that appropriation be 

 made from time to time to meet the neces- 

 sary expenses of such investigation. It is 

 not probable that the survey would be com- 

 pleted in a less period that that of eight or 

 ten years, but it is well that it should be 

 begian in the near future. The Philippine 

 Commission and those responsible for the 

 Philippine government are properly anx- 

 ious that this survey should not be consid- 

 ered as an expense of that government, but 

 should be carried on and treated as a na- 

 tional duty in the interests of science. 



Theodore Roosevelt. 



The White House, 

 February 7, 1905. 



REPORT OF THE COIIJIITTEE OF THE NATIONAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



1. Need for Comprehensive Work. — The 

 primary incentive to scientific exploration 

 of the Philippine Islands, as of any other 

 region, is a desire to promote the commer- 

 cial and industrial welfare of the inhabit- 

 ants, and this purpose should never be lost 

 sight of. Experience shows that this end 

 is best attained by a comprehensive investi- 

 gation of facts and conditions undertaken 

 in a broadly scientific spirit. Millions of 

 dollars have been spent in searching for 

 coal in regions where the rocks are far 

 older than the coal measures; it was the 

 seemingly unpractical science of paleontol- 

 ogy which put a stop to this waste and 

 enabled geologists to outline the areas to 

 which valuable coal fields are limited. So, 

 too, antiseptic surgery is an application of 

 recondite branches of botany and chem- 

 istry. The vast benefits which the Agri- 

 cultural Department and the Fish Com- 

 mission have conferred upon our country 

 are founded upon the imtiring labors of 

 zoologists, botanists and chemists whose 

 sole purpose was to elucidate the truth; 

 and long after Franklin took the first step 

 in the science of electricity economic appli- 

 cations of the knowledge acquired were 

 almost undreamed of. In short, modern 

 industrial development is an outgrowth of 

 pure science, and almost every discovery 

 of science is ultimately turned to economic 

 account. Hence it would be short-sighted 

 not to extend to the Philippines the broad 

 and generous spirit of research which ani- 

 mates the governmental scientific work of 

 the United States. 



The main object to be sought in planning 

 explorations of the Philippines is not to 

 suggest new or unusual subjects of study 

 or methods of study, but to provide against 

 duplication of work, and to arrange for 

 such cooperation between the officers en- 

 gaged in different branches of the Scien- 



