May 19, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



767 



should be under a trained naturalist, com- 

 petent to supervise the field .work, make the 

 necessary technical studies and prepare the 

 report relating to his own special line. The 

 chief object of the work should be a com- 

 plete and authoritative report on the fauna 

 and flora of the islands, comprising de- 

 scriptions of all the species, with a state- 

 ment of their geographical ranges. This 

 will lead to a natural classification of the 

 islands according to the origin of the 

 faunas and their relationship to one an- 

 other and to those of adjacent islands. At- 

 tempts thus to group the islands have been 

 made by AVallace, Steere, Worcester and 

 others, but as yet the faunas and floras are 

 too little known to admit of final judgment. 



9. Forestry.— The subject of forestry in 

 the Philippines is one which is both of deep 

 scientific interest and of great importance 

 in the economic development of the islands. 

 A local bureau of forestry has already been 

 instituted by the Philippine Commission, 

 and this will undoubtedly be a permanent 

 organization. It will be needed to protect, 

 control and foster the extremely valuable 

 timber resources of the islands, and it is 

 already doing good work. There are, how- 

 ever, certain fundamental facts and rela- 

 tions in connection with the forests which 

 can be ascertained only by a thorough sci- 

 entific investigation, which is beyond the 

 scope of the local bureau. These studies 

 can be completed within a few years, with 

 the certainty that the knowledge obtained 

 will be of lasting benefit to the local bureau 

 of forestry; and the investigation of these 

 subjects properly belongs to a scientific 

 survey of the archipelago. Such subjects 

 are the sylvieultural organization of the 

 forests; periodicity of growth in tropical 

 trees; processes of seed-bearing, seed-dis- 

 tribution and germination ; growth and 

 competition in early life; the influence of 

 moisture and temperature on the tropical 

 forest and the influence of the forest on 



moisture and temperature. While forestry 

 is, strictly speaking, a branch of botany, its 

 methods are peculiar and it will be expedi- 

 ent to treat it as a separate branch of the 

 scientific surveys. 



10. Anthropology. — Although little is 

 known of the archeology and ethnology of 

 the Philippines, there are sufficient reasons 

 for believing that, in these two closely re- 

 lated lines of research, facts of the greatest 

 importance will be discovered in the archi- 

 pelago. Indeed it is probable that in 

 southeastern Asia or in the adjacent in- 

 sular regions the remains of fossil man will 

 be found. The discovery of bones of Pithe- 

 canthropus erectus, that strange ape-like 

 man or man-like ape, in the Pliocene for- 

 mation of the Island of Java, leads to the 

 expectation that systematic research in the 

 deposits marking the beginning of the Qua- 

 ternary period in the Philippines will yield 

 the remains and probably the works of 

 man, and thus throw light on the subject 

 of early man in Asia. The small amount 

 of archeological research thus far accom- 

 plished in the islands has already revealed 

 evidence of an apparently aboriginal peo- 

 ple differing from the Negritos. 



This Negrito race of the islands, with 

 its closest affinities on the Malay Peninsula 

 and the Andaman Islands, offers a problem 

 of exceeding interest and scientific impor- 

 tance. Where did this Negrito race orig- 

 inate ? Is it a distinct primitive type that 

 has persisted in the outlying regions of the 

 Asiatic continent ? or is it a differentiated 

 branch of a widely extended primitive race 

 or species of man? These and other im- 

 portant questions may not improbably be 

 answered by an extended anthropological 

 survey of the Philippines. 



Linguistic studies of the widest scope 

 should be pursued on the islands. The 

 myths and folk-lore of the various tribes 

 should receive the attention now demanded 

 by the requirements of science. Collections 



