Through good report and ill, mostly ill, he has given unsparingly of his time, his skill and his wisdom, always treating the government money as if it were his own.

His tenure of office has been long enough to enable him to inaugurate and carry out policies, and thus get results.

Seldom, if ever, have health officials been more viciously and persistently attacked than have Dr. Heiser and myself.  The assaults on us have been the direct result of a firm stand for a new sanitary order of things, established in the interest of the whole body of inhabitants of these islands, civilized and uncivilized.  We both welcome the profound change in public sentiment, which has slowly but surely come about as a result of practical accomplishment.

Many very grave health problems still confront the insular administration.  Of these the most serious are the eradication of tuberculosis and the reduction of the very high infant mortality rate.

It is believed that about one Filipino in five suffers from tuberculosis in some form during his life and the work we have thus far accomplished in many fields must be considered as in a way a clearing of the decks for action against this, the greatest enemy of all.  However, the Philippines do not differ essentially from other civilized countries, in all of which tuberculosis is a very serious factor in the death rate.

As regards infant mortality the situation is different.  More than fifty per cent of the babes die before completing their first year of life.  The causes which lead to this appalling result have been made the subject of careful investigation which still continues.  Popular interest has been aroused, but it is undoubtedly true that many years of patient work will be necessary before anything approaching satisfactory results can be brought about.

The physical condition of the average Filipino is undoubtedly bad.  Of one hundred seventy-eight university students recently examined sixty-nine were found to be suffering from serious organic troubles.  Unquestionably the great mass of the people are underfed.  This is largely due to the poor quality of the rice which they consume, and to the fact that rice forms too large a part of their diet.  I am firmly convinced that much of the so-called laziness of the Filipinos is the direct result of physical weakness due to improper and insufficient food.

Since the American occupation a large amount of time has been successfully devoted to the working out of a good all-around diet made up of local products the cost of which comes within the means of the poor.  The next thing will be to get them to adopt it, and there comes the rub.  Incalculable good would result, if we could only persuade the people of these islands to sleep with their windows open.  Thousands upon thousands of infant lives would be saved annually, if mothers could be persuaded not to give solid food to their little ones during the early months of their existence.