fficer, and thus has been in complete executive
control of the health situation for eight years.

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 insufficie