The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-09

The most of the so-called cities of Porto
Rico would be considered little more than
villages in the states The land is d.
Vided up into municipalities, but each
municipality contains not only the vii
lage by which it is governed, but all the
| people living for miles around, so that
a town of 500 or 1000 is often put down as
| having from six to ten times that num-
ber find, in fact, the figures and state
mentS put down in the books as to mat
tiers Porto Rican full of errors. They
are made up from unreliable data, and
the most of them come from Spanish
books from fifty to a hundred years old.
THE CLIMATE.
Take for instance, the climate. About
| a generation ago some Spaniard wrote
| that Porto Rico was a country of ca
tarrh, consumption and bronchitis. He
stated that the hot, moist climate caused
dysenteries and fevers and gave the land
q bad name as to health. This statement
has, to a large extent, been copied and
has created a serious misimpression. Our
army surgeons tell me that the contrary
is the truth and I find that the Amer1-
cans who have come to Porto Rico have,
as a rule, improved in health.
Take myself. When 1 left Washington
{ | I was considerably troubled with the
| nasal catarrh for which that city is
famous 1 brought with me an atomizer
and other remedies. The moment land
ed at San Juan my catarrh left me, and L
have not had sign of it during my stay
here. One of the captain quartermasters
has had a similar experience, and 1 have
met a number of people who have been
! cured of catarrh and bronchitis since
| landing in Porto Rico.
A SANITARIUM FOR NERVOUSNESS.
I was talking today with Mr.. Harrison,
the manager of the San Juan and Rio
Piedras railroad, as to climatic condi-
tons. Said he:
II think Porto Rico will eventually be a
sanitarium for Americans who are
| broken down nervously. Take my own
case. I was afflicted with nervous pros
tration when 1 was in Chicago. I could
not sleep and could not work. l have i'm
! proved every hour since 1 came to Porto
! Rico and have been at my desk from in
the morning until 6 every day. l am
doing what would naturally be wearying
work 1t is, you know, the organization
of this railroad, but it does not seem to
affect me- Every one sleeps here.
There is another thing about the eli
| mate" continued DR.. Harrison, that
q! should be contradicted, and that is as to
consumption. 1 have looked for it, and
I cannot see many evidences of it. In
our street cars we do not have the dis
gushing hawking and splitting that you
find in the United States You will not
see it on the streets, and 1 don't believe
that the disease exists
NOT A HOT COUNTRY.
1t is not hot here except in the middle
of the day. and then no warmer than
in the United States. 1 doubt whether
Porto Rico ever gets so hot as some parts
of Ohio and Indiana in the summer, and
there is no question but that the Porto
Ricans would roast in Washington in
July and August The air here is full
of moisture, but there is 4 breeze always
blowing which lnalas 1t rather pleasant
Than otherwise. The average daily tenn
perlture the year around is about Sc
degrees, and here at Sa Juan the moan
monthly temperature deducted fIcm OBJ
servations of more than twenty years
is less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit. N
this lreriod the thermometer only rose
thrice to 80 degrees and it never fell be-
low 81 degrees.
With so much humidity even this
heat would be oppressive If it were not
for the bre azes which come from the
North Atlantic They are full Of
ozone and they stimulate you Ikea cock
tail find that I am daily doing too much
firing myself out before / know 1t and
only realizing that 7 am worn cut when
I sit down. This is especially So On The
coastal Plains Further back on the
high lanIs the air is cooler and more
stimulating II fact, L should say that
Porto Rico is fully as healthful Conn-
try as any of our southern states.
THOUSANDS OF SORE ARMS.
And this brings ME to the question of
the smallpox which has been reported
as raging down here this year. There
have been some cases and the most Of
them have been removed to an island
near San Juan or put into hospitals apart
from the rest of the people. The poor
among the Porto Ricans herd together
H., 10
whole island is not infected with the
disease will deG4ribe- their life later.
At present believe there are no small
poX cases left.
The most remarkable thing in connec-
ton with the smallpox was the vaccina-
ton of the whole population under our
| army surgeons When 1 arrived in San
Juan every man, woman and child had
| sore arms. saw sore arms on every
, country road. Screamed men worked
In the fields sore-armed women stood at
the doors of the houses with sore-armed
babies IN their arms, and 1 saw them by
hundreds in every city and village as
travelled through the interior. ven
, ture that there were at least S0O,OOO sore
arms here at that time.
D In many cases the vaccination took so
, seriously as to make large scars, and 1t
was not uncommon to see babies with
! scabs on their arms as big as a quarter
! | of q dollar. In going through the poor
= est quarters of the cities and studying
= the life there I pretended at times to be
q government inspector, and took look
/, | at the arms of the people as an excuse
for entering the houses to see how they
= lived, and 1 failed to find any who were
not more or less afflicted.
d BIGGEST VACCINATION JOB.
, The vaccination of this enormous num-
9 Der within a few weeks was one Of the
1 great feats of modern surgery. A AW
: months after Uncle Sam took possession
it was found that smallpox had broken
/ | out and that only a few in every thou
: sand of the population had been vacci-
O mated. 1t was decided that all must be
g | inocculated at once. Maj. AZel Ames, one
t of our army surgeons, was chosen to
d take charge of the work, and he has
v accomplished it in way that will be
8 | one of the wonders of medical history.
. In the first place regulations were sent
e out providing that man could not get
J. work or do business of any kind without
: he was vaccinated, and that all the peo-
t pie must come to certain stations over
Q the island and submit their arms to be
h scratched The penalties were such that
n they came in hordes and today 1 doubt
h If there are hundred unvaccinated men,
: women and children on the island
n The work was carried on largely by the
s native doctors, under the direction of oul
u surgeons, and thousands were treated ir
n a day In cases where the first vaccina-
ton did not take a second vaccination
was required, and, all told, the vaccina-
tions must have amounted to more thar
T, 1,000. 900.
= VACCINATING CATTLE.