"4. Convalescence after surgical operations in the Philippines is rapid and satisfactory when such operations have been carefully and skillfully performed. "5. The danger of mortality after a skillfully performed surgical operation in which all the details of a rigid aseptic technique have been carried out is not increased by the influences of the climate of the Philippines unless the patient is at the same time the victim of some other serious disease." Similar views are expressed by the attending physician and surgeon, Civil Hospital, in his report submitted in 1903 to the secretary of the interior. Major-General Wood, governor of the Moro Province, in his annual report to the governor-general, states: "There is nothing in the climate of this portion of the islands which prohibits a long residence here. The British residents of North Borneo and the Malay Peninsula and the Dutch in Java manage to live apparently very contented and healthy lives in those countries, which are hotter than any portion of the Philippine Islands. While the service is in a way severe it does not seem to deter the average Englishman or Dutchman from competing eagerly for positions in the government of the colonies, and it is believed that Americans can live and do good work where any other white race can. A moral life with plenty of hard work will be found to counteract in most cases the so-called demoralizing effects of the Philippine climate." The revelations of bacteriologic research of the last few years, arming man with a knowledge of the causative factors of many tropical diseases, have diminished the importance of their geographic and meterologic relations, have destroyed theories of the climatic origin of disease, and thereby robbed the tropical region of many of its terrors, such as yellow fever, malaria, Asiatic cholera, and dysentery. Among Americans the late lamented Maj. Walter Reed and his coadjutors did monumental work along this line in Cuba and the army laboratory at Washington. The preliminary work of the bacteriologists and pathologists connected with this magnificent and splendidly equipped new laboratory a in the Far East gives every indication that the research work already inaugurated will show brilliant results and add new names to the long list of investigators whose work and discoveries in the field of preventive medicine deserve the gratitude of the whole world. CONCLUSIONS. (1) With respect to the principal climatologic factors-temperature, humidity, and atmospheric movements-the climate of the Philippine Archipelago is not extreme, and occupies an intermediate place in tropical climates, as it is distinctly insular in character, the greater portion of the land area being not far distant from the ocean. There are other modifying influences which obtain in portions of the archipelago, such as general oceanic and local interisland currents, prevailing winds, elevation, the state of cultivation and drainage of the soil, and the presence of forests and other plant life. (2) Excluding localities in the Tropics characterized by excessive heat, high relative humidity, or unhealthful soil conditions, acclimation or physiologic adaptation of the white man to tropical environment is possible. (3) If acclimation is possible, colonization is possible. (4) Failures of the white race to live in the Tropics and maintain health, excluding localities indicated in the second conclusion, appear to have been due principally of nonobservance of the rules of personal, domestic, and public hygiene. (5) As a rule, Americans appear to become acclimated in the Philippines during the third year of residence. (6) With sanitary surroundings and by observing the rules of personal and domestic hygiene, residence of Americans in the Philippine Islands appears to be attended with as little danger of disease and death as residence in the United States under similar sanitary conditions. BIBLIOGRAPHY. ALBUTT. System of Medicine, Vols. I, IV, and VII. ALGUÉ, JOSÉ. The Climate of the Philippines. Philippine Census Bulletin No. 2. BAKER, H. B. Meteorology and Disease. BANISTER, JAMES M. Surgery in the Philippine Islands. Report of the SurgeonGeneral, U. S. Army, 1904, pp. 116-117. BLACKMAN, W. F. The Making of Hawaii, pp. 229–240. BUCHAN, ALEXANDER. Climate. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. VI. a The second annual meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical Association was held in the new laboratory building of the bureau of government laboratories in Manila. CALVERT, W. J. Tropical Diseases. Reference Handbook of Medical Sciences, Vol. III, pp. 882-886. CANTLIE, JAMES. Tropical Life as it Affects Life Assurance. Archiv f. Schiffs-a. Tropen-Hyg., 1903, Bd. VII, Heft 3, pp. 389-390. (Ref.) DAUBLER, KARL. Die Grundzüge der Tropenhygiene, München, 1895. FELKIN, R. W. Introductory Address to a Course of Lectures on Diseases of the Tropics and Climatology. Edinb. Med. Jour., 1885-6, Vol. XXXI, pp. 844-852. On the Geographical Distribution of Tropical Diseases. Royal Med. Soc., London, 1891. On the Normal Temperature of Europeans and Negroes in Africa. Edinb. Hosp. Rep., 1894, Vol. II, p. 450. Tropical Highlands, Their Suitability for European Settlement. Tr. VII Int. Cong. Hyg. and Demog., 1891, X, 1892, pp. 155-164. GUYOT, ARNOLD. Physical Geography. LIND, JACOB. Krankheiten der Europaerin der heissen Klimaten, Leipzig, 1773. MUNSON, E. L. Military Hygiene. MUSGRAVE & CLEGG. Amebas: Their Cultivation and Etiologic Significance. Bulletin 18, Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila, 1904. PARKES. Hygiene. PEPPER. System of Medicine, Vols. I and II. ROWER. Beitrage uber das Tropenfieber. Deut. Med. Wochensch., 1890, XI, pp. 751, 763. STOCKVIS, B. J. De Invloed van Tropische Gewesten op den Mensch en Gezondheid, 1894. La Colonisation et l'Hygiene Tropicale, 1896. Uber vergleichende Rassenpathologie und die Widerstandsfahigskeit des Europaers in den Tropen. Verhandl. d X Int. Med. Cong., Berlin, 1891, 1, pp. 190-214. THAYER, W. S. Lecture on Malarial Fevers, 1897. Report of the Commissioner of Public Health for the Philippine Islands, 1903. EXAMINATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS. The following table shows the results of all examinations (noneducational excepted) held by the Philippine civil service board during the year ended June 30, 1905: |