We even have "repeaters," and persons who drop in just to get a comfortable bed and a bath while waiting for an examination which will inevitably show that there is nothing wrong with them.
Our difficulties were increased at the outset by the fact that many foreign medical men working in the Far East good-naturedly ridiculed our efforts to better conditions, claiming that in tropical colonies it was customary to take only such steps as would safeguard the health of European residents, and that it was really best to let the masses live as they would, since orientals were incapable of sanitary reform, and the attempt to bring it about involved a waste of effort that might be more profitably directed elsewhere.

Furthermore these men were, in their several countries, practising what they preached.
It has been very interesting to note the reaction of American methods upon those previously in vogue in neighbouring colonies.

At first our efforts to make Asiatics clean up, and to eliminate diseases like leprosy, cholera and plague, were viewed with mild amusement, not unmixed with contempt; but the results which we obtained soon aroused lively interest.
Foreign governments began to send representatives to the annual meetings of the "Philippine Island Medical Association," [505] in order to learn more of our methods.

From these small beginnings sprang "The Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine," the biennial meetings of which bring together the most experienced, skilful and widely known physicians and sanitarians in the East for an interchange of views and experiences which is invaluable, and greatly facilitates concerted action between the various governments concerned in dealing with what may be termed "international health problems." The first meeting of this Association was held at Manila, the second at Hongkong.

The third will take place at Saigon.
The results of a rigid enforcement of the "Pure Food and Drugs Act" are worthy of more than passing notice.