The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-29

on the Isthmus for little over year. IL Is estimated that something like $200.000 has been expended by the Sanitary Department of the Isthmian Canal Commission in the hercuiean ef- fort that has been made to stamp out the disease in the cities of Panama and Colon, and in the towns along the line of the Panama Railroad in the zone belt. Carloads of sulphur and py- retheum powder have been consumed during this period in externlinating the stegomyia mosquito. Nearly every habitation and building in the cities of Panama and Colon has been fumigated three or more times.
 A few weeks ago It was decided to fumigate the city of Panama once more. and make a thorough job of it. Accordingly some 800 men, organized Into fumigation brigades, were set to work under the direction of experts imported from abroad, and the work was begun on a wholesale plan. that is, an entire city block would be fumigated at the same time. This latest fumiga- tive effort is now abouts completed, and some of the men employed on the works are being laid of.
 Compared with the last three months the fever situation on the Isthmus is much improved, but whether this Is due wholly to fumigation. 1t is hard to say. This is the mid winter Of the tropics, and the records of the past show that as a usual thing, there is very little yellow fever at this time of the year. There have been only seven official cases on the Isthmus so far this month, and but three deaths, two of these be- ing July cases. Last year there were but two or three cases during the en- tire month. so to credit the improve ment in the situation entirely to the a,ts L NfA generous, inasmuch as in August of last year, only buildings containing the foci of infection were fumigated, the general work along this line not be- ginning until later.
 Methods of Prevention.
 Some people say that with all the ef- forts at extermination there are as many mosquitoes as at any. other time in the history of the city, while there are some people who believe there are fewer of these pests now than a year ago. Personally, l am inclined to the latter opinion, although the cutting down of undergrowth and the draining and filling in of low places may have had as much to do with 1t as the mat ter of Immigration. Then again all bar rels and tanks are now required to be covered, and there is no doubt but what this has accomplished some good.
 It is very doubtful however, that yellow fever can ever be effectualiy stamped out on the Isthmus through the agency of fumigation alone. It has not succeeded on the isthmus after years pretty thorough trial, although here it has resulted at ieast~in keep ing 1t under control That the striped black and yellow legged female mos quito is alone responsible for the transmission of the disease is an in- disputabls fact, but that the original examination of the fever is due to the same cause, may we'll be questioned.
 If Panama was as clean a city today as Montgomery it Is a two to one shot that the eradication of the disease, un- der the modern method of handling, would only be a matter of short time. But where there are hundreds of peo- pie living in places no better than pig stys, can it be expected to get rid Of a disease whose primary home is in filth.
 Not until there Is a wholesale clean ing up of the cities of Colon and Pan- anna. will there be entire and lasting exemption from the dreaded Yellow Jack. One of the peculiarities of the disease here on-the Isthmus is the fact that 1t is wholly confined to the zone strip, and the cities of Colon and Pan- anna, with the possible exception of Bocas del Toro, where there is occa- sionally a case.
 Some Towns Free.
 The towns up the West coast of the republic are always free from yellow fever, despite the fact that there is at all times constant communication be- tween these places and Panama. It may be said that the inhabitants of these towns are natives, and are not subject to the disease. but at Agua Dulce this year there have been many Americans engaged on the works of the Panama Government, and not a single case has been reported. The same may be said of the Darien gold mining region, the abode of all kinds of levers, except yellow. Americans frequently go there to work for the Darien Gold Mining Company, and have nothing to fear from yellow fever. Yet in two instances. these employees have come to Panama for a short stay, con- tracted the disease, and died.
 In all the discussion, pro and con, regarding yellow fever. the fact re- mains there is much yet. to be ascer- tained, particularly in connection with the primary. origin of the germ.
 The new Chief Engineer, Mr. John F. Stevens, is a most unassuming man. To one seeing him for the first time on his trips through the canal strip, he would be taken for a foreman, or | day on one of his trips to Culebra cut, he noticed that one of the steam show els was not working. He went up to the engineer and inquired the cause. The engineer told him that the track was bad, and he had been delayed all the morning The Chief Engineer i thereupon told him he could shut down the shovel altogether. The man was somewhat taken aback at the order, and wanted to know who he was to | give such an order. T am Stevens, the l Engineer" was the quiet response, and the steam shovel shut down.
 Lack of Funds Reported.
 The story is current that the sus- pension of engineering operations and | the returning of men to the States Is due to lack of funds in the canal ap- propriation. more than to the immediate | necessity of bettering sanitary and gen. eral conditions. However that may be, the Hull in affairs will afford a much needed opportunity to take a fresh grasp oon the situation for the task | of putting through the big ditch looms up greater and greater every day, and the original expectation as to what the canal would probably cost will look like the proverbial thirty cents' to what will be actually expended when l the undertaking Is done.
 1 The Administration Building, which | has been the home of nearly all the branches of canal work and zone gov ernment, since the inception of opera lions, will shortly be broken up. The l nana uviII he unOvad to