m. Now
let us consider how they came to be.

In the early days I drafted an act providing for the establishment of
a Bureau of Government Laboratories which should perform all of the
biological and chemical work of the government under the direction
of one chief, and on July 1, 1901 the commission passed it.

I was more than fortunate in securing as the director of this
bureau Dr. Paul C. Freer, then professor of general chemistry at the
University of Michigan.

Dr. Freer obtained leave of absence for a year, in order to help us
get started. This leave was twice extended for additional periods of
one year each, and in the end he decided to sever his connection with
the university and throw in his lot with the Philippine government.

He remained in charge of the Bureau of Government Laboratories and
of its successor, the Bureau of Science, until his death on April
17, 1912.

Himself a chemist and investigator of note, he had a wide and
catholic knowledge of science in general, and no better man could
have been found for this important piece of constructive work. For
nearly a year the two of us laboured over plans for the laboratory
building and lists of the necessary books, instruments, apparatus,
glassware, chemicals and other supplies. At the end of this time we
submitted to the commission what I do not hesitate to say was the
most complete estimate for a large project which ever came before
it. Much forethought was necessary in order to time the orders for
books, instruments and apparatus so that it would be possible to
house them properly when they arrived, and the estimated expense was
distributed over a period of two and one-half years.

Meanwhile work had begun in cramped temporary quarters in a
hot little "shack," for it deserved no better name, back of the
Civil Hospital. Here under almost impossible conditions there were
performed a large volume of routine biological and chemical work,
and a considerable amount of research, the results of which proved
to be of far-reaching importance.

With the employment of the first chemists and bacteriologists there
arose a class of questions which I determined to settle once for
all. There is a regrettable tendency among some scientific men to try
to build barbed-wire fences around particular fields of research in
which they happen to be interested, and to shoo every one else away.

At the outset I gave all employees clearly to understand that such
an unscientifi