The times., 1898-07-17
SANTIAGO DE CUBA.

pregnable by a judicious use OF its natu-
raj fea atures. 1t is the opinion of medical
experts who have dealt with yellow fever
that the place can be quite as effectively
fortified against Yellow Jack, though the
undertaking must be more serious than
that of Hercules when he contracted TO
clean the Augean stables. Both Havana
and Santiago, the first two cities of Cuba,
are hotbeds of disease, partly because CT
the Incidence and indifference of authori-
ties and public and partly because of the
malarial conditions about them. No sucn
negligence as the health officials of
tropical cities display would be tolerated
by communities of the same size and i'm
portance in the United States, where the
need of sanitary enterprise is less. 1t is
no longer mere opinion, but an estab-
lshed principle, that the health of a COM
munity depends in large measure on the
attention paid to the purity of the water
supply, the removal of refuse that the
air may not be polluted and the seclusion
of every case of contagious disease. The
Spaniards, and, indeed, the Latin races
generally, are less concerned about pub
lie health matters than other peoples.
The city of Santiago. the Oldest in the
West Indies, was founded three centuries
ago. The site is perfect for drainage. the
town being seated on the side of hill
inclining toward a splendid harbor, but
there is no drainage system. Certainly
no city in the United States of nearly
100000 people has failed TO establish a
sewerage system even when the natural
conditions have made II a matter of great
expense and difficulty. Yet for more than
a century the people or this Cuban town
have seen their homes ravaged by pre-
ventable disease without any apparent
disposition TO rid the place of the cir
cumstances that promote 1t. The subsoil
is saturated with the sewage of the COM
munity, which is not carried away by the
rains of Autumn. Not even the Arab
concerns himself about sanitary matters
less than the languid citizen of Cuba,
whether of Spanish or native origin. The
ordinary Cuban regards the disease as
having redeeming qualities, because it
often carries off Spaniards. 1t has ap-
peared regularly every year for 100 con-
.secutiye years ana an occasional physi-
clan has tried TO create a public sen,i-
ment in favor of fighting it. but in vain.
There is not a record of a single effort
on the part of Spain 10 stamp out the
plague or even to check its ravages.
Drawing a large revenue from the island,
that nation has evaded the expenditure
of moneys for any public purposes that
have not been in some way essential to
Even the enormous public preside or
prison. at Santiago is without any system
of drainage. Although often crowded
with people, its accumulated filth is not
carried away by any safe methods, but is
allowed 10 run down one of the public
streets to the sea, poisoning the air and.
in event of the prisoners having typhoid
fever, distributing the germs Of thai grave
disorder The military hospital is often
taxed to its capacity, which is great.
Every detachment of troops from Spain
suffers from climatic diseases until the
men are acclimated or dead. This large
building is situated in the upper and
back part Of Santiago. Within its walls
is a vast cesspool that has no outlet.
II is offensive to the sense of smell he
yond description, and it is appalling TO
think what an effect it has in spreading
disease germs by its conta mination of the
air and its pollution of the soil. 1t is
only because the most of the people be-
come immune that anybody within the
sphere of its influence escapes yellow
fever. All available material is quickly
exhausted.
This neglect of the simplest precautions
against epidemic and preventable diseases
is the more amazing because of the costly
lessons Spain has had. The record of lives
lost, criminally sacrificed to the selfish
ness of the ruling power is even worse
than that Of the allied armies in the
Crimea. A vast majority of the Spanish
troops in garrison in time OF peace have
been the victims, thousands dying in the
course of a few years, while tens of thous-
ands of Spanish regulars have found a
grave in the beautiful island in times of
war, but not from bullets. In the ten
years war which ended just twenty years
ago 200 900 men, veterans, constituting the
flower of the Spanish army, were swept
away chiefly by climatic diseases, only
1900 being killed in battle or dying of
wounds received in action. The awful
criminality apparent in this docking rec
ord has never aroused a protest either in
Cuba or in Spain. The Spanish character
seems to be destitute of the faculty of in
dignauon in respect of such barbarities.
The same shameful and wicked neglect
that obtrudes itself on the attention of the
icf.
San Juan, the capital of Porto Rico. The
large military and naval hospital at Ha-
vana, too, with beds for 1,5O0 patients.
could not have had a site better calculated
to make disease fatal If it had been Sc
lected by Cuban insurgents, the most in
veterate of all the enemies of Spain and
Spaniards. Unfortunately ii is a substan-
TALLY built hospital and therefore not
easily TO be destroyed by fire, placed near
the foulest end of the pestiIent harbor.
The sick of army and navy are all sent to
1t and that the rate of mortality is with
out a parallel among civilized peoples is
not surprising. Here the victims of vel
low fever are never isolated and of course
victims are allowed the freest intercourse
with the inmates. This makes of it a CEN
ter for distributing the seeds of the dis
ease From it are sent the contaminated
supplies for all the inland hospitals, and
since yellow fever is never entirely absent
from the island the system for its widest
extension is as perfect as possible
All this is recited to indicate the enor-
nous and difficult work before the med
ical department of our army If we are
to afford the best protecion to the Amer
lean soldiers. Epidemics of yellow fever