The San Francisco call., 1904-03-20
HOW TO LIVE
IN PANAMA
Natives Die Numerously Be-
cause of NOn-Observance of
Ordinary Health Rules
THE REIGN OF FILTH
Expectation That American
Methods Will Work Same
Changes as in Cuba

The American who lets alcohol alone
and observes the most ordinary health
rules, it is claimed, will have nothing
to fear If he goes with the rush TO the
new republic of Panama when canal
work starts under American auspices.
The disease bogey threatens to keep
many good man away from the 18TH
mus and merely because somebody has
told him that he will have only half
chance for his life after he has worked
there a few months.
There Is plenty of sickness, and much
of 1t in aggravated form, in Panama
and the other isthmian countries, but
it is mostly among the natives, who are
content to live and die, II necessary,
in the filth to which they have always
been accustomed. The easy-going
French contractor, who had more OF an
eye to his pocket than to the condition
of the workmen who would bring the
money into his strong box, winked at
the lack OF sanitation. If one native
died, there was always another to take
his place. 1t was rarely that the con-
tractor or any of the foremen perished.
The medical reports made by physi-
clans from this city who went down
during the preliminary surveys give
pretty fair ideas Of what the conditions
will be when canal building begins in
earnest once more. Among those who
were on the medical stan Of the COM
mission was DR.. John P. Gunion Of this
city, and Of his observations he says:
CONDITIONS NEAR THE COAST.
I'm the vicinity of the coast the
health conditions are. during both the
wet and dry seasons, quite good, my
observation being that those who exer
cised ordinary hygienic precautions
had little more to fear of serious i'll
ness than though they lived in a tenn
perate city, Washington for instance.
l was with the Darien exploration par
ty for parts of both seasons, and during
neither was the temperature so high as
l had been led to believe 1t would be.
Indeed, many August days in this city
are far more oppressive than the worst
of the isthmian days.
Back from the coast the health con-
ditions are not at all bad, especially on
the high ground, of which there is
plenty. In short, you may live or die,
I
vidual. The man who lives in the cities
has to face worse days than the one
who goes back into the country SAM
tation is the thing last thought of in
the cities. What would be considered
absolutely essential in even the most
graft-ridden American municipality has
not yet penetrated the ease-loving Of
! fetal in Panama Every man does as
| he pleases, with no one to criticize or
reprove him. The American Indian liv-
ing in a tepee on the plains, with no
white man to instruct him, knows more
Of the right way of living than the in
dolent revolutionist of the isthmus. To-
morrow Is always time enough for him
| to take UP any proposed reform, unless
1t be a revolution. Into this he enters
heart and soul, with no thought for the
welfare of his body should he be strick-
en- in battle. His family for generations
back has fought fever, and he expects
to do the same until it conquers him.
WORSE IN CITIES THAN OUTSIDE
From an understanding of these
facts it is conceivable that disease is
more prevalent in the cities. Panama
City is at present rather a poor place
|
! than at Colon. OF tropical and other
diseases these cities receive their share.
So do Baranquilla, Savanilla and
] Carthagena, in none of which could /
find anything that approached sani-
tary system. 1 saw malarial fever in
it's many forms, yellow fever, typhoid
fever and dysentery, though not the
tropical dysentery, which l found to be
rare in this section.
These were the diseases which
claimed victims by thousands during
De Lesseps regime, but it should be
remembered that in the heyday of the
French control sanitary science had not
attained the relatively important posi-
ton it now has. Every recent discovery
in the great and as yet little explored
field of bacteriology has contributed it's
part toward placing sanitary science in
it's present high position. The French
man knew nothing of the danger that
lurked In the common mosquito.
"He always realized that malarial
fever was something to be avoided if
he could manage it, but he never slept
under netting or drained swamps as
preventive. This is a point which
the American medical force will keep
to the fore all the time. Statistics for
the first six months of American con-
troll seem likely to show a wonderful
decrease In malaria among the work
ing force. The same is true Of yellow
fever, for DR.. Reeds great work in
hunting down the same death-dealing
mosquito as the bearer of the worst of
all the scourges gives another inkling
as to what must first be done by the
@o1 =. fIa@ 1<al
workers.
What has been done in Havana
can be. and will undoubtedly be done
in Panama and Colon. Add to the
means taken there for stamping out