The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-07-16

known no more Of tropical disease
thar they do"
What Sanitation Did.
Under those conditions could we
have built the canal. Colonel Cor
gasp | asked.
1T would have been very difficult
70 have gotten our white employees to
come here. We had trouble to hold
them during the yellow fever time of
1905. You must also consider that
death among the French were
largely amOng the white French en-
pioyes. According to the records Of
their hospital here. they had more
than 900 yellow fever deaths dur-
ing nine years, and those were mostly
F'renchmen.
1t is same to say that the were as
many more deaths from yellow fever
among the same class outside the
hospitals.
Now the French white employees
avereg only a few over 1900, and
this means that they lost four-fifth
Of their whole force in nine years or
eleven-Sixteenths in five years. Dur
in" our first five years the number
Of u white force was on the average
only a little more than 5000. 1t we
had lost at the same rate as the
French we would have already buried
more than 1000 of those white men
from yellow fever alone. and accord
ing to the same calculation we should
have had about $4,000 white men
here in Panama TO have kept our
forces at work. If we had had that
many we should have already buried
ver 5000 from that disease"
and what has been the actual
loss?"
1T Was only nineteen"
tJYaxyo 49,, arr x,olla-r oyo nnu ?''
mo. we shave had no cases since
1905. think that we may safely say
that we have wiped it out of the
isthmus as an epidemic for all time
to come"
How about malaria?"
when we first came here we had
on the average 500 cases in every
1000 of our employees This has been
reduced until now there are only
about IT'S per 1000 who are sent
to the hospital during the year. |
doubt whether the health OF any
working force all the world over is
much better than ours"
The Tropics as the World Of Future
Have you not prove that the white
man can live and work in the tropics
quite as we'll as in the temperate
zOneo"
Yes replied Colonel Gorgas. That
has been absolutely demonstrated
and | believe it will have a great eff
feet as to the world of the future. II
would seem that the first man must
have lived in the tropics. and that
that was his natural habitatiOn. he
was born an animal without clothes
and at the start he must have had
a warm climate 1t was only when
the tropical diseases drove him away
that he left that most eautiful part
of old Mother Earth. Now that
these diseases can be controlled. he
will come back and Within q few
centuries in all probability the most
civilized parts Of the world will be
the tropical zones. With a given
amount Of labor sman can roduc
far more there than in the colder re
gions. He can live better and have
more days to work. AS 1t is now the
greater part of the population OF the
cold lands is die for six months OF
the year. Its inhabitants spend then
time in fighting the cold
But will it not cost too much &c
make the fight against the diseases
Can the ordinary LDan afford TO i've
In mosuuito-proof dwelling?
II think it would be very muef
cheaper than to heat his home IN the
cold lands of the far north rept1ee
Colonel Gorgas. "AU that you neee
here is a screen Of woven wire aoou'
the outside Of your house. You az
not need a heatiDg plant or 1ur o.