The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-17

Ml6uHMaW Ermn1 - lhas steadily decreased, until in 1908 there were only eight deaths.
 During the present American inter- ventiop the sanitary departpent of the jgovernment has been under the gem erai supervision of Major J. R. Kean. He has perfected the sanitary system so as to avoid the errors of the Palma administrations. The isxity of the sani- tary campaign under the Republic was not due so much to the. careiessness of officers as to the imperfect system. The municipalities could not work to- gether, there was q conflict of authori- lty and In many places there was an unavoidable shortage Of money. 1 It has already been arranged that under the new Republic the sanitary department will be nationalized. The national government will have direct control of sanitation all over the is- land. and the expenses will be paid by the national treasury. A system of taxation has been arranged which VIII make the burden fall equitably, but the collection and disbursement will be national. With the reorganization of the sanitary department, and with awakened vigilance, 1t is confidently believed that Cuba is free from the yellow fever for all time to come. If the cooperation of the governments of Mexico and the Gulf State of the American union is secured. 1t is en- ,tirely possible that within 6 genera tion. the disease win be plotted out entirely. | Vigilance is the price of security. Everybody in Havana Is expected to be q. volunteer officer of the sanitary guard. If one hears a mosquito buzz zing in his room he immediately teie- phones tc the sanitary office. Inspec- tors come and search the neighborhood. hunting for breeding places. Tie mosquito does not go far from his with It's wiggle-tails is soon found If possible it is destroyed. If 1t is a cess-pool or some other receptable which cannot be done away with, q liberal quantity of crude oil is used and the mosquito breeding business is dis continued at that place. However, the sanitary department does not wait for volunteers to report the presence of mosquitoes. The city of Havana Is divided into sanitary dis ltricts. each with an inspector and . corps of assistants. Every house in the city is searched once every ten days for mosquito breeding. places. The citizens must give the inspectors every facility for search, under penal tys of, a fine. The search Is repeated so often that the Everlasting Cycle Of the mosquitoes life is broken into.
 If mosquitoes are found, or if the lwiggle-taiis are discovered. the insects and larvae are taken to the sanitary office. There they are examined and classified. A record Is kept of the number of mosquitoes and larvae whether they are of the Stegomyia. the yellow fever carrying variety,or other wise. The discovery of an unusual number of mosquitoes in any particu- lar section means the enforcement Of an extraordinary inspection and the use of more oil. Havana last year used over 150,000 gallons of crude oil lin the anti-mosquito campaign.
 Havana has no sewerage system, and the presence of the inevitable cess pools means & greater consumption of oil and a greater vigilance than will be required when the contemplated and projected sewerage system is installed.
 The city is blessed with a water sup ply which Is not excelled by any other city in the world of its size. The water is pure and paiatable, although Q little hard. It comes from the famous Vento springs, and is distribut- ed by a system Of aqueducts which Is even a greater monument, to the engi- neer. Gen era1 Francisco de Albear, than that marble effigy which stands at the junction of two principal business streets of the city. '.,T1t
 The first decade of freedom from the Spanish rule has made many changes in the life of the Cuban Per- haps the greatest of all these changes has been accomplished by the sanitary officers. Yellow fever has been prac- tically abolished, malaria has been placed under control. and the people of the small towns and rural districts have been provided with hospitals.
 Whether or not the great sanitary work inaugurated by the Americans in the government of intervention will be permitted to lapse, as 1t did during the former period of the self govern ing republic, is something that time alone can tell This matter may be fraught with great political irnpor- tance. If 1t Is again proved that the Cubans will not keep up the neces- sary sanitary work to prevent yellow fever epideWics, that fact will be a sufficient reason for the United States again to step in. The American gov ernment cannot permit an island at its very doors to become a breeding place for dangerous epidemics which are entirely preventabie
 Leaving aside politics and questions of administration. the science of sani- tation undoubtedly has achieved its greatest triumph in Cuba. To have destroyed the scourge of yellow fever Is one of the greatest accomplish ments in all history. That Is what was done by American army medical of- ficers is something of which every American ought to be proud. Army medical officers died to test the mosquito theory of yellow fever trans- mission under circumstances that calI- ed for finer quality of courage than | is necessary to charge a battery or shell a fort. If the United States has done r~-s5ing else that Is good in It's whole career as the Elder Brother of Cuba, the record of it's sanitary work alone has been worth all the money and all the trouble 1t has cost.
 (Copyright, 1909. by Frederic J. Has kin.)