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SECOND SEPARATE BRIG4DE. 
OF THE CHIEF SURGEON, 
San Fernando, Pampanga, P.I., June 20, 1902. 
To the 
Chief Surgeon, 
Department North Philippines, 
Manila, P.I. 
Sir:- 
4 
In compliance with your letter of February 3 , 1902, I have 
the honor to^submit the following report of the Medical Department, 
ox •'he Second Separate Brigade, for the year ending June 30, 1902, 
consolidated from reports of station surgeons and information 
gathered at inspections:— 
1.-AMBULANCES are all in bad condition as the climate is raoid- 
y destructive, and the life of any vehicle is probably one fourth 
or one fiftn ox what it is at home. They are generally housed and 
nave ceen and. are of great use. It has been necessary to use them 
for other passengers than the sick, and this practise is not ob- 
jectionaole as they are always available. Animals and harness are 
m possession of the Quartermaster's Department at all small stations 
^•—HA.KERIES are generally of the field tjxpe recently' supplied, 
a few brick oven of simple construction have"been built and*are 
satisfactory. Native troops do not know how to use an oven and 
do not use the bakery, though they like bread and should have it. 
3 was recommended to the adjutant General of the Brigade that a 
oaker be sent to each Native company to teach them how to make bread. 
I 
^ 3.—.dOOKs, aria files of papers are very few and have no protection 
i.roni dampness or insects and will not last long. The metric system 
is a blunder and a failure as it is dangerous and impractical. It 
nas bo oe followed in compliance with orders, but it is not under— 
s ood by a majority of privates to whom we are compelled to give 
nursing directions in plain English measures. Men arrive in the 
Islands who have never heard of a metre, gramme or litre, and on 
one occasion I discovered a nurse giving ten times the amount of 
the medicine ordered, as he was not an expert on decimals. Medical 
have t0 De constantly on their guard to protect the sick 
irom this danger and pratically have to think in two systems al¬ 
ways. It will never be universal, as it is unnatural to divide by 
tenths, the natural way is by 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8. it is proper an< 
indispensable .for science but unwholly unsuited for unscientific 
and_common people who invariably, when they have forced on them, 
devise new, measures, like demi-litre, more convenient. 
The whole of our country is divided into square sections of 
a mile, and these in quarters by halving the sides, and the number 
of scres^in a mile is 640 , because it can be easily divided by 2, 
4,8,16,32,64, etc., The quarter section is 160 acres and when again 
and again subdivided each square is a furlong on the side and is" 
a ten-acre lot. This will never be changed, the roads and houses 
are on section lines and as long as there is an American in the west 
he will always say the roads are one-mile apart and he owns a 
quarter section of 160 acres. He will never use fractions of a ‘ 
Kilometre. Hence the chance of having the metric system intro¬ 
duced is nothing and we ought to go back to Anglo-Saxon, grains 
yards and pounds in the Medical Department, so we can agree with 
Americans, and be understood. Nearly all English Medical literature 
is in English measures and it is a waste of time to lalways fijgs trans¬ 
lating. - 1 
