Observance of these instructions may save the lives of yourselves, your families and your tenants. It is your duty to do your part in this matter, a part which neither the Bureau of Health nor the Government can do for you. Through very great effort the Bureau of Health has controlled plague in Manila and the Philippine Islands during the last two years. Residents must now do their part, and owners of property must permanently make their buildings safe for tenants, both for business and residential purposes. BACTERIOLOGIC OBSERVATIONS MADE BY DR. OTTO SCHÖBL.--The following observations upon the bacteriologic aspect of the Manila epidemic which we are considering were made by Dr. Otto Schöbl of the Biological Laboratory of the Bureau of Science, Manila, and pertain to the cases of the first year of the epidemic. They were printed in the December number of the _Philippine Journal of Science_ in 1913, but as they belong so definitely to the epidemic I am describing and as Dr. Schöbl has expressed his willingness for me to quote them in full, I gladly accept his permission. Dr. Schöbl advanced the possibilities of blood-culture diagnosis to such a point of reliability that it became practically possible for us to expect positive culture in nearly every case of true plague and the whole matter of bacteriologic diagnosis was perfected to a high degree of efficiency under his administration of the laboratory work. He relates his observations as follows: During the recent outbreak of plague in Manila, I had the opportunity to make certain observations which are of interest. These observations were made in the examination of: (1) Specimens taken from patients and from dead bodies at autopsies, (2) samples of blood-sucking insects collected in houses where plague patients had lived, (3) rodents caught by trap or poisoned in the parts of the city where plague cases occurred from time to time, and (4) domestic animals suspected of plague infection. I. BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF PLAGUE PATIENTS In order to secure as early diagnosis as possible, the following procedure of investigation was adopted: 1. The bubo was aspirated by means of a sterile hypodermic syringe. The material thus obtained was placed in the water of condensation of an agar-slant culture tube. 2. At least 7 centimetres of blood were withdrawn from the _cubital_ vein by means of another sterile syringe, and 5 centimetres of it were placed in an Erlenmeyer's flask, containing 200 centimetres of neutral meat broth. The rest of the blood was emptied into a sterile tube, and used for agglutination tests.