there were 5581 cases with
4386 deaths; while in the provinces, in many of which it necessarily
long ran its course practically unhindered, there were 160,671 cases,
with 105,075 deaths.

On the 27th of April, 1904, the Board of Health passed the following
resolutions:--

"Whereas cases of Asiatic cholera have occurred in but three provincial
towns of the Philippine Islands since February 8, 1904; and

"Whereas only one case of Asiatic cholera has been reported as
occurring any place in the Philippine Islands since March 8, 1904; and

"Whereas the city of Manila was declared on March 23 to be free from
the infection of Asiatic cholera; On motion

"_Resolved_, That the islands composing the Philippine Archipelago
are, and are hereby declared to be, free from the infection of Asiatic
cholera; and

"_Be it further resolved_, That the Commissioner of Public Health be
directed to send a copy of these resolutions to the honourable the
Secretary of the Interior, the Municipal Board, the United States
Marine-Hospital Service, and the Collector of Customs."

As a matter of fact, however, it later proved that cholera was endemic
in certain swampy regions near Manila, and in 1905 we found ourselves
with a new epidemic on our hands.

At the end of the second week, beginning August 23, there had been one
hundred thirty-seven cases, as compared with one hundred twenty-five
for the same period during the epidemic of 1902-1904.

However, the conditions for combating cholera were now far more
favourable than in 1902. Major E. C. Carter had at his own request been
relieved from duty as commissioner of public health, and Dr. Victor
G. Heiser, passed assistant surgeon of the United States public
health and marine hospital service, had been appointed to succeed
him on April 5, 1905. Dr. Heiser was a highly trained officer of one
of the most efficient services which has ever been organized for the
combating of contagious and infectious diseases.

He had under him in the city of Manila a small but thoroughly trained
body of twenty-four medical inspectors, of whom nineteen were Americans
and five Filipinos. Profiting by his previous experience and that of
his predecessors in the Philippine service, he inaugurated a campaign
which practically terminated the epidemic in Manila on February 21,
1906, [501] with a total of two hundred eighty-three cases and two
hundred forty-three deaths.

This brief and decisive campaign reflects the