We at first endeavoured to have vaccinations performed by local Filipino health officers, but, after spending large sums without obtaining satisfactory results, gave up this plan and substituted therefor a method of procedure by which the work was carried on under the very immediate supervision of the director of health.  We then made substantial progress.  However, under the law as it at present stands, succeeding annual vaccination, intended to insure the immunization of children soon after they are born and of unvaccinated persons who may come into a given territory, are intrusted to the local Filipino authorities, with the result that in very many cases they are not attended to.  We get elaborate returns showing the number of persons vaccinated.  Then comes an outbreak of smallpox, and on investigation we learn that the vaccinations so fully reported were made on paper only!  In other words, the continuance of this work, of such vital importance to the Filipino people, is still directly dependent upon continued control by American health officers.

Another great problem now in a fair way to final solution is the eradication of leprosy.  At the outset we were told by the church authorities that there were thirty thousand lepers in the islands.  In 1905 we began to isolate and care for all supposed victims of this disease, only to find that many outcasts believed to be suffering from it were really afflicted with curable ailments.  We were able to restore a very large number of them to society, to their great joy and that of their friends.

A few hundreds of true lepers were being humanely cared for in Manila and elsewhere.  Many others had been driven out of the towns into forests or waste places on the larger islands, where they were perishing miserably from fever and other diseases.  Still others had been isolated on sand quays, where they were in danger of dying from thirst during the dry season.  Not a few wandered through the towns at will, spreading the disease broadcast.

All known lepers are now cared for at Culion, a healthful, sanitary town with good streets, excellent water and sewer systems, many modern concrete buildings and a first-class hospital.

They are not confined to the limits of the town, but wander at will, except that they are excluded from the immediate vicinity of the houses of the officers and employees of the colony.

They may have their little farms, and raise pigs, chickens, vegetables, etc., if they wish.  They may, and do, float about over the waters of the neighbouring bay in boats or on rafts, and fish to their hearts’ content.  They are well fed and well cared for, and their physical condition improves to a marked degree promptly after their arrival at the colony.  The only hardship which they suffer is that necessarily involved in separation from their relatives and friends, and this is mitigated by occasional visits which the latter may make them.