Arizona republican., 1908-07-15
they are having a hard time.

they are having a hard time
 It takes about 150,OOO gallons of mosquito oil a year to keep down these little bloodsucking pests who come lafter you, hammer and tongs There are fifty known breeds of mosquitoes on the Isthmus and perhaps some twenty more species which have not been identified. As perhaps one third of the canal zone is swamps it will readily be seen that a. good many gal Ions of oil must be poured on the mosquito troubled waters to keep the pests from multiplying Of the fifty or more species of mosquitoes, ten, and probably elSven, belong to the malaria producing family. Two of the others belong to the yellow fever pro- ducing class. What the other thirty odd species are engaged in besides an- moving long suffering humanity has not been determined
 It is the young mosquitoes that the Sanitary department is able to extern mate. They live under the water, but have to come up to the surface with more or less frequency to get a breath of fresh air. If one happens to come up where there is a drop of mosquito oil his career is suddenly terminated, as the oil goes down into his little lungs like so much lead, and he is soon done for. As the average young mosquito has to come up to the sur face over eight thousand times during his larva life it will be seen that the odds are considerably aganst him.
 While the sanitary department tries to keep track of every mosquito on the Isthmus, it is also keeping a weather eye out for the rats and mice It is said that these rodents play the role of host to innumerable fleas. These fleas bite a bubonic patient and then go off and bite well person. travel ing about on rat or a mouse. So the battle of the health authorities is to eXterminate these flea carriers Wherever one goes on the Isthmus he finds notices posted which advise that rats and mice spread the fleas which carry bubonic plague infection. Re quest is made that everybody shall join in the crusade of exterminating the rats and mice, and that the dead body of every rat on the zone be turn ed over to the sanitary department 1 Great as will be the benefits of the canal from a commercial standpoint they promise to be Outrivalled by the great contributions to public health making. They have proved that prop CT methods can absolutely prevent ! epidemical disease, and their work marks the beginning of the epoch when humanity is released from the i thraldom of old King Contagion.
 The Panamanians have always been indifferent to filth. When the Ameri- cans took charge of things the two cities of the Isthmus, Colon and Pana- ma were about the dirtiest places in the world. There were no sewers, no water supplies, no precautions against disease, and no paved streets worth the mentioning. As they are situat- ed at the two ends of the canal it would have been useless to try to have the canal zone free from epidcmics if these cities were not free. So the treaty with Panama provided that the United States should have perpetual l sanitary jurisdiction over these cities Then the United States laid them system of sewers, gave them a whole
 
 streets. In return she is collecting sufficient rental from the water users of the two cities to reimburse her for her outlay in fifty years, including in terest charges. The Americans have also insisted that the people should keep their premises clean. It was af ter viewing the wonders that have been done in transforming these two filth jest spots on the map into two clean looking cities that former Minister Buchanan remarked to Governor Blackburn, during his recent visit to the Isthmus: Governor, if when I was here as the American minister an angel from Heaven had come to men and announced that in these few years I should -returp here and behold so great d change I could hardy have believed it possible"
 The work of the sanitary department has brought the death rate down to the point where it is no more than that for the average American city. Of course the death rate among the negro population will ever remain high on the Isthmus, as it does every where. They are predisposed to pull mOnary disorders, and the dampnesS of the climate together with their dis regard of the simple laws of health make it but natural that the death rate should be high with them.
 But among the whites there are few if any American cities which can boast so low a death rate. During the past year they had a death rate of only 9.76 per thousand among the Americans on the zone. Deducting those who died from wounds received in accidents the death rate from dis case is found to have been only GA per thousand, or as small as would be eX- pected to occur among any samilar body of men in any part of the United States. The death rate among the women and children living in com mission quarters was almost as low as that among men-an extraordinary condition. The rate for the entire population of the canal zone was only a little over twenty-one per thousand during 1907, which is about the same showing as was made in New York, and a better one than was made in Washington, Baltimore and New or leans.
 Conditions are still improving. In