The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-07-16
THE TROPICS, HOME OF
BIG FUTURE EMPIR rs
Advanced Methods of Sanitation Will Reyolution;ze
Equatorial Lands-How Panama Canal Zone ;s
Kept Healthy-The Death Rate Contrasted With
That of France. ~"
.,,ryrieht. 1912, by Frank G.. Car
ptnter.)

III William {. Gorgas, the army sur
,,,u who has been in charge Of health
,.,t.re during our stay on the 18TH
INC Of Panama. You all know Of
-. wonderful work. He found the
canal Zone a pest hole, and he has
,,de i, one Of the healthiest of all
a,ots upon earth. The death rate
"a wear among our fifty odd thous-
80 employees was less than eight to
tb, thousand. and among h white
american who work on the canal it
u,s ,eSs than three to that number.
The death rate in New York of all
c.us.-S was about sixteen per thOus-
and and in many other cities Of the
rrit,d States it is Very much higher.
have never seen anywhere a
healthier looking crOWd than those
men ghO are working on the canal.
me, labor al day in the sun. and in
the rainy season are out for eight
bours when the heavens dOWnpOur.
N4\etheleSs their eyes are aS bright
az n. blue of the ma sky. and
Their faces AS rosy as that of the
SIN hen it rises out OF the Pacific
ocean 10 send its blazing fire down
upon them.
that sun and the Pacific ! will not
again attempt to explain. 1t seems
here 10 rise in the west and set in the
east. but it is just as hot as any sun
uf the tropics, and for all other things
quite as deadly. Through the efforts
Of Colonel Gorgas and the officers of
our medical force it has been robbed
Of its terrors. and men labor away all
DAY. All week and the whole ear
without fearing. Their experiments
in sanitation have. indeed. robbed the
tropics of its terrOrS. and they have
instituted a new scheme Of treatment
which promises to create a new
world for the future. But | will tell
YOU what Colonel Gorgas says about
this farther on.
The Panama OF the Past.
During my talk | asked Colonel
Gorgas something as to the Panama
Of the past and whether it was really
hS bad as was painted. He replied:
W found it 50 when we took
charge here in 1904. The official
pilot hart used at that time describ-
ed the isthmus as the hottest. wettest
and most feverish region on earth.
ii said that Intermittent and maligant
f'vers were prevalent, and that there
was an epidemic Of yellow fever at
times. This had been tn condition
for centuries. The SpaniardS, who
hrs crossed to the Pacific about
1920, found it SO. and at the time Of
~ "iS'oNNtS VI 6Olu III 1oIl1o ilh
the forty-niners died by the hun
dreds. Along about 1853. when the
Fame ma railroad across the isthmus
Was half completed. we sent a regi-
ment Of the United States army to
California by way Of the isthmus,
With General Grant az ouartermas-
Ter That regiment had to march
IRON Gorgona to Panama. where they
TOOK ship for San Francisco. During
the latter part Of their journey they
loS' eighty men out of $40.
An even greater morality prevailed
among some of the men who built
'hc railroad. You have heard Of the
oealh cars which went over the road
every morning and the story that
mere was = corps for every tie on
we track. ! do not know about that
nu' me mortality was so great thai
me construction work had to be stop
pea 1or lack Of men. The railroad
'oH'pany once imported a thousand
negroes from the west coast Of Afri-
a. and they all died within the space
VI SIX months. Later they brought
thousand Cinnamon and the most
"a tnese died. The morality wa:
terrible"
"ath and Disease Among the French
u was equally bad in the days OF
ne french canal. was it not?"
We may belive the stories i
"rS beV"nd descriptions. awful Sil
i"uoe Mallet. the present British
Muster at Panama. who was ther
un'ustl consul here and as such hat
ne administration of the estates O
!" hrltish subjects who died on tn
90 tells me that he had from
- hundred to six hundred sucf
T'",tS 10 settle every month. GU
40 :" 81. rate. calculated on a force o
V.oV' would amount to only 20 pc
Nth and those British deaths wer,
S me subjects of John Bull only
=, ! IS hard to get accurate statistic
T., ."St now many died under tn,
en'h We know that they ha,
thor" hospitals and that the sick il
were we'll cared for, but tn,
for ",acfors had to pay a dollar a da,
'heir men who were kept in tn
tb e and you can easily see tina
~ orolnary contractor would sen,
no, "'ore than he had to. From tn
~, Information 1 can get l believ