The Yale expositor., 1906-12-21

ings they put up were excellent and
are still in use, though, naturally, the
houses are now getting out OF repair ana
are being used as dwellings only unul
other houses can be built and much OF
the work they did. In the Culebra cut
ana some of the work they dld IN ulB-
ging has been of direct and real beneht.
This country has never made better
Investment than the SiO,OOO.OOO which II
paid 10 the French company for work
and betterme,tts, including especially the
Panama railroad.
An Inspection on the ground at the
height of the rainy season served To con-
vince me of the wisdom of congress IN
refusing to adopt either a high-leVel or
sea-level canal. There seems TO be a
universal agreement among all people
competent to judge that the Panama
route. the one actually chosen, is much
superior TO both the Nicaragua ana
Daren routes.
Preliminary Work Being Done.
The wisdom Of the canal management
has been shown i'm nothing more clearly
than in the way i'm which the founda-
tons of the work have been laid To
have yielded to the natural impatience
of ill-informed outsiders and begun all
kinds of experiments in work prior To
thorough sanitation of the isthmus, and
TO q fairly satisfactory working out of
the problem of getting and keeping
sufficient labor supply would have been
disastrous. The various preliminary
measures had to be taken first; and
these could not be taken so as TO allow
tion prior to January ! of the present
year. 1t then became necessary TO have
the type of the canal decided, and the
only delay has been the necessary delay
until the 29th day of June, the date
when the congress definitely and wisely
settled that We should have an M-foot
level canal. Immediately after that the
work began in hard earnest and has
been continued with increasing vigor
ever since; and it will continue so to
progress in the future. When the con-
tracts are let the conditions will be such
to insure a constantly increasing
amount of performance.
Successful Sanitation.
The first great problem to be solved.
upon the solution of which the success of
the rest of the work depended, was the
problem of sanitation. This was from
the outset under the direction of DR..
W. G. GOrSas, who is TO be made a full
member of the commission 1t must be
remembered that his work was not mere
sanitation as the term is Understood I'm
our ordinary municipal work. Through
out the zone and in the two cities of
sanitation work proper he has had to
do all the work that the Marine hospital
service does as regards the nation. that
the health department officers do in the
various states and cities. and that Col
Waring did in New York when he
cleaned It's streets; The results have
a byword for deadly unhealthfulness
Now, after two years of our occupation
the conditions as regards sickness and
the death rate compare faVorably with
reasonably healthy localities in the
United States. Especial care has been
devoted to minimizing the risk due to the
presence of those species Of mosquitoes
which have been found TO propagate
malarial and yellow fevers. In all the
settlements, the little temporary towns
or cities composed of the white and black
employees, which grow up here and
there in the trOpic jungle as the needs
of the work dictate, the utmost care is
RWpTpigC1 Keen
Everywhere are to he seen the drainage
bitches which in removing the water
have removed the breeding places of the
mosquitoes, while the whole jungle is
cut away for a considerable space around
the habitations, thus destroying the
places in which the mosquitoes take shell
ter. These drainage bitches and clearings
are I'm evidence in every settlement, and,
together with the invariable presence of
of mosquito doors To the houses, not to
speak OF the careful fumigation that has
gone on in all infected houses, doubtless
explain the extraordinary absence of
mosquitoes. As matter of fact, but
a single mosquito, and this not of the
dangerous species, was seen by any
member of our party during my three
days on the iStnmuS. Equal care Is
taken by the inspectors of the health de-
partment TO secure cleanliness IN the
houses and proper hygienic conditions OF
every kind. ] inspected between 20 and
80 water-closets, both those used by the
white employees and those used by the
found the conditions perfect. In but one
case did / find them really bad In TINS
case, affecting a settlement OF unmar-
ried white employees ! found them very
bad indeed, but the buildings were all
inherited from the French company and
were being used temporarily while other
buildings were in the course OF construc-
ton; and right near the defective water
closet a new and excellent closet with
good sewer pipe was In process of con-
struction and nearly finished. Neverthe-
less this did not excuse the fact that the
bad condition had been allowed to pre-
vail. Temporary accomm odatons, even
~ only such as soldiers use when camped
in the field, should have been provided.
orders to this effect were issued. ap-
pend the report of DIR. Gorgas on the in
cident / was struck, however, by the
fact that in this instance, as in almost
every other where a complaint was made
which proved to have any Justlhcaton
whatever. 1t appeared that steps had al
ready been taken to remedy the eVll
complained OF, and that the trouble was
mainly due 10 the extreme difficulty, ana
often impossibility, OF providing In every
place for the constant Increase in the
numbers Of employees. Generally the pro.
vision is made in advance, but IL Is not
possible that this should ways be the
case; when IL is not there ensues a
period of time during which the condi-
lions are unsatisfactory, until remedy
can be provided; but I never found
case where the remedy was not being
provided as speedily as possible
improvements in Cities.
The sanitation work In the cities OF
Panama and Colon has been just as
Important as in the zone itself and in
many respects much more difficult. be-
cause IL was necessary to deal with
the already existing population. which
naturally had scant sympathy with
Revolutionary changes. the value OF
wbich they were for a long time not
ahia 10 perceive. In Colon the popula-
zion consists largely OF colored labor
era who having come over from the
west Indies to work on the canal,
abandon the work and either take TO
fhe brush or lie idle In Colon itself;
thus peopling Colon with the least de-