The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 45, 1736 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

SUPERIOR EDUCATION

Academical course for 1883–84

	Registration of matriculation
Theology,	65
Canon law,	3
Jurisprudence	232[4]
Notary,	15
Medicine,	395
Pharmacy,	102
Practitioners of medicine,	72
Practitioners of pharmacy,	19
Midwives,	12

By means of the incomplete data which precede, and it is a fact that they do not exist in more exact form or of more recent date in the Ministry of the Colonies, it is easy to recognize the great results which can be obtained in regard to making reading and writing general among the Indians, and in seeing that they learn the Castilian language, for only a very small fraction of them know it very superficially.

Some advance has been made since the establishment of the normal school. But there is still much to do, and it is necessary that so crying a need be considered with the haste and decision that this important matter demands.

The establishment of schools of arts and crafts will also be very convenient and useful, and truly they will be productive of great results. Everything which contributes to the propagation of the teaching of industries, to the creation of superintendents and assistants of public works, master-masons, and all that relates to these matters, ought to be encouraged, and must be an advantageous and efficacious blessing to the natives of that country, who are extremely skilful in all the imitative arts and crafts, rather than for the studies which demand the employment of the superior faculties of the intelligence.[5]

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[1] The meteorological observatory was founded by the Jesuits in 1865, its main object being the discovery of the laws of the typhoons that rage in Oriental seas. Its other departments—seismatic, magnetic and astronomic—were added later. For the first five years the apparatus was very scarce, and most of that was lent by the Ateneo Municipal, but notwithstanding that, some excellent work was done in those early years. In 1870, the publication of a bulletin was begun, and new apparatus began to be installed. The first typhoon was forecast and notice of its coming given in 1879. Finally the government authorities made the observatory a central institution and placed it officially in charge of the Jesuits. In 1898, through the influence of the British meteorologist at Hongkong, the United States government ordered the coming of typhoons not to be announced, but the order was speedily revoked. Of this observatory Packard says in the Educational Report for 1897–98, pp. 973, 974: “The latest fruit of the scientific activity of the Jesuits, and the most important and best known scientific institution in the Philippines, and perhaps in the whole east, is the famous meteorological observatory of Manila, which was founded in 1865, and now has one of the most complete equipments for meteorological observations in the world. An important practical service which the observatory renders shipping is the warning of approaching hurricanes, which it is enabled to give by means of its branch stations at different points in several of the islands. The Jesuit father Faura, who is so well known for his meteorological work, has been for a long time in charge of the observatory, and began forecasting the weather as early as 1879. Expeditions have been made under his direction all over the archipelago, with a view to making magnetic and other observations.” See also Archipiélago Filipino, ii, pp. 5–16. [↑]

[2] “Manual for the traveler:” a guide book, in which various interesting statistics are published. [↑]

[3] Historia geográfica, geológico y estadistica de Filipinas (Manila, 1876), by Agustin de la Cavada y Mendez de Vigo. This author was for many years a State official in the Philippines. He died in Spain in 1894. See Pardo de Tavera’s Biblioteca filipina, p. 96. [↑]

[4] The Indian and mestizo advocates, too abundant in that country, are a real calamity to it, and the same thing may be said of them as of the Indian secular clergy. They do not know the law, nor do they ever come to understand what they have studied. They obtained their certificate, thanks to the excessive tolerance of their professors, and once converted into licentiates and even doctors, they pay for their benefits and the honor which they have received by becoming outrageous anti-Spanish. They believe themselves superior to the latter, and dream of republics in which they can figure and strut. Their ridiculous hopes, and their vanity and deficiency would be excusable, if they did not deceive their simple countrymen in a nursery of litigation with their eagerness of defending evil causes. Such is, although it be a cause for regret, the general rule. See Montero y Vidal, Archipiélago Filipino, pp. 192, 193, note. [↑]

[5] This is one of the needs that has been most apparent to the American authorities since 1898. The stress laid upon industrial training is evident from the many Filipinos among the government pupils now in the United States, who are being trained especially in agriculture and the various forms of engineering. Regarding trade schools and industrial instruction, see Report of Philippine Commission, 1905, iv, p. 412. [↑]