The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-01
YELLOW FEVER STAMPED OUT
NO APPEARANCE OF THE epidemic
PREDICTED BY DIR. GUrrERAs.
Thousands of Sick and Hungry PeonIe
Cared For, and Numerous Re-
forms Well Under Way.


public, and Secretary Alger has allowed
some extracts to be published. 1t may be
stated that the secretary feels that the re-
suits at Santiago have demonstrated the wis
dom shown in the selection of General Wood
for this peculiarly difficult post Combining,
as he did, medical skill with the highest
type of soldierly qualities and executive
ability, he was able to meet and overcome
the problems presented at Santiago. The
letter, moreover, presents wildly the fright
1ul conditions that confronted the American
army of occupation after the surrender of
Santiago. General Wood says in part:
Il have had very difficult position from
sanitary point of view and not altogether
easy one from a military and civil stand
point. When we came into the city the
sanitary situation was something frightful
There were a great many unburied dead in
the houses, between two and three thousand
Spanish wounded and sick and great horde
of half-famished and sick people, nearly
twenty thousand in number who had just
returned from Ell Caney, where they had
gone during the siege. The water supply
of the city had been cut off; there was no
water to be obtained, except from cisterns
and few wells, and the streets were full
of dead animals and all sorts of filthy ma
terials. ] had to start in from the bottom
and repair the waterworks. Then came the
removal Of the dead. Some of these were
burned, because the number was so great
and decomposition had advanced to such an
extent that they could not be buried. Burn
ing is not uncommonly practiced here dur
ing the epidemic season. We had yellow
fever all around us and about twenty cases
in the Spanish military hospital. The civil
hospital was full of dying people and public
buildings were being used as hospitals. On
the whole it was an extremely difficult task,
requiring a great deal of hard work
II have been working Systematically with
every means at hand to improve the sani-
tary condition of the city. 1t is in this de-
partment that vast amount of work has
been done. I have force of about 40 men
constantly employed and at many times
have had nearly double this force working
day and night to remove the vast accum-
mutations of indescribable filth which has
accumulated in the outhouses and yards as
well as the streets of the city, which is
reputed to be one of the most unhealthy
and dirty in the world. The death rate has
dropped steadily since we came in and is
now about one-fourth of what it was in
July. The water system has been put in
order and great many repairs made to it
and the supply, although insufficient, is
utilized to the greatest advantage.
A VAST WORK
II have had to hire doctors for the hos
pitfalls, purchase medicine for them and sup
ply them with beds and bedding and food,
in fact, re-establish and take entire charge
of them. / have also established a strict
system of house inspection and inspection of
the streets and have disinfecting depart
ment as well as a cleaning department. The
city has been divided into five districts, in
each of which is relief station, where food
is distributed and a physician in attend
ance, who prescribes for those who present
themselves sick, and visits the sick in the
houses. The police department, all doctors,
and the officials in each ward have received
instructions to furnish these physicians a
list of sick requiring attention and also of
the worthy poor, in order that we may be
somewhat protected in the distribution of
medicines and rations. / am issuing at pres
ent about fifteen thousand ratiOns per day.
The physicians are probably prescribing for
six hundred or seven hundred people, and
on some days many more. These physicians
are native Cubans, educated in the United
States and employed by our government as
contract surgeons.
lect in the streets l have dumped outside
of the town and burned. l have also had
the lower and most unhealthy part of the
city ditched and drained and the bitches
running into the harbor cleaned out. also the
water front system of sewerage, which was
condition. 1t has long been the custom in
this town to depend on heavy rains and the
rushing floods through the streets to sweep
away the accumulated filth. All this has
been swept down to the water front. where
1t has been collecting for many years, chok-
ing the drains and filling the shallow waters
near the shore so that when the tide goes
out masses of decOmpOsing material are ex-
posed to the intense rays of the sun and
furnish a fruitful source OF disease. Later
this year when the epidemic season shall
have passed. it is my intention, IL l am
granted funds and authority, to have the
shallow places dredged out so that at least
a thin layer of water will cover them at
low tide and prevent the present condition
of affairs. -. ....,..,,
and its uniform changed to one similar TO
that worn by the Cubans. and they will soon
be entirely rid OF all suggestion or Spanish
rule.
have re-esta blished and arranged, pilots,
LAS the courts are not yet running, have
the delightful experience each day of act
of all sorts of odd cases. OF course. the
most serious cases. such as crime, are being
held for trial either by military commits
sion or by the courts when they are estab-
lished and in operation.
RECEIPTS AND EXPENSES.
1.-THE receipts of the city from customs
since we occupied it, l understood from
Generals Shafter and Lawton, who have
charge of this matter. have been about $780,
OOc. The expenses of the city per week.
supporting the hospitals, cleaning the
streets, doing the necessary engineering
work. and the many little things that are
required to keep up the different depart
ments of a city of $1,000 people. are at
present 1880 to 5000. Of this about 81 soc
is for sanitary work and engineering. the
remainder for hospital police, etc.
Il have been as economical as possible
but have felt that in this matter OF santa
ton expense should not be taken into con-
sideratiOn, the lives of all Americans here
might be said to depend on a prompt and
thorough correction of the frightful unsan-
itary condition in which the city was found
THE great expert on yellow fever, Or.
Guiteras assured me in July that an cpl
demic of yellow fever of great severity was
absolutely unavoidable. and that we were
destined TO lose a large proportion or our
people here. Thus far 1t has been avoided
and not only avoided, but to-day do not
know of an authentic case Of genuine yell
low fever in Santiago de Cuba proper, and
every day increases our chances of escape
General Wood then makes some recon-
mendatiols as to what he needs in the way
- - 70 lie mi