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have been reported among troops, but many have occurred among the 
native prisoners in the military prisons scattered through the 
Department. In the military prison at Lingayen,Pangasinan,where 
the disease has existed continuously since American occupation, 
Captain II. A.Littlefield,Assistant Surgeon,U.S.V.has made the in¬ 
teresting observation that, it seems in a measure,at least, depend¬ 
ent on the food supply. The native and white prisoners at 
Lingayen lived under identically the same conditions,except in 
the matter of food. Yet,while the disease was rife among the 
• . , 
natives,no cases occurred among the whites. The natives have been 
fed until recently on the'white,Chinese rice furnished by the 
Commissary Department. This has been stopped and the darker- 
colored,native rice substituted. Immediately after this change 
an improvement was noted in the beri-beri cases,which has gone on 
until all are now well and for the first time in its history the 
Lingayen Prison is free from this disease, captain Littlefield 
// 
is making further investigations on this subject results ofi*. 
he will state in a special report. 
The epidemic diseases observed during the year have been 
% cholera,leprosy,plague,small-pox and typhoid fever. 
The first case of cholera reported occurred March 19,1902 
in a native living in the crowded district of San Nicolas,in Manila, 
near the water-front and shipping. It is supposed to have been 
contracted from fresh vegetables brought from China,where the 
disease has been epidemic for some months. Prom San Nicolas the 
