The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1913-09-12
Number Death
e - -AA. ..aN

Colonel Gorgas found in the early
years of canal work that the Ameri- =
cans and Europeans were three times
as healthy as the natives of the tropics,
who, as Chief Engineer Stevens noted
in 1905, ARE supposed to be immune
from everything, but who as matter
of fact are subject to almost every
| thing" This somewhat upsets the
theory that northern races cannot live
readily in tropical climates.
| Several of the annual reports of the
sanitary department have noted the
remarkably few diseases peculiar to
men, such as alcoholism, etc.
Allowance must be made in consider
| ing the favorable health showing on
the isthmus to the fact that the en-
! ployees in one sense are picked men.
They must be in sound condition when
employed and usually in the prime of
| life. Another thing that has kept the
death rate down among the Americans
has been the practice of returning to
the United States many patients who
apparently had not long to live. Thus
their deaths were not a charge against
the canal zone
1t cannot be assumed that all the
deaths from disease in the canal zone
were from causes that originated
there. The diseases peculiar to the
tropics have not claimed as many vic
tins among the Americans as the dis
eases peculiar to the northern climates.
But there has been a steady improve
ment, as may be noted in fall in the
death rate among the Americans from
S.14 per 1000 in 1907 to 5.14 per 1000
in 1911.
An incident in the sanitary govern
mcnt of the iSthmus was an executive
order by President Taft, effective on
Dec 10. 1911, which prohibited the
practice of any system of therapeutics
or healing that the sanitary depart
ment, the allopathc school, should rule
against. The president upon its posi-
bic application to create a monopoly Of
healing in the canal zone being point
ed out to him revoked the order on
, Jan. /. 1912.
Employees are not permitted to re-
main in their homes and quarters
, when sick, but must go to the Colon
! or Ancon hospital unless the district
physician expressly rules otherwise
The hospital grounds at Ancon are
5 beautiful, and convalescent patients
are sent to Taboga island ten miles
out in Panama bay, for final treat
ment. A dairy with 1875 cows supplies
| tn hNenftnI
D At first Colonel GOrgas was not {
I member of the isthmian canal commits
, sion. But the extraordinary ability HI
displayed resulted in the separation o
the sanitary department from the ju
riSdictiOn of the governor of the cana
zone, and on Feb. %. 1907, Colone
GOrgas was made a member of tn
commission, with the department o
sanitation having equal dignity wit
Il other grand divisions Of the work. II
S is the only official of the highest ran
c who has been with the canal projec
J. from its earliest days to the present.
Il The cost of the sanitary conquest o
II the isthmus to July l, 1913, was tn
II somewhat impressive total of $4,000
! 600. Here, as in the pay and trea
- ment of employees, the governmeI
. has sought results without regard
the expense. For the remaining day
of the canal the cost of sanitation wi
'' be approximately S2,5oO,0O0, or ST.
100000 in all by Jan |. 1914, whic
e amount is nearly S3,OO0O0O less tina
H. the cost estimated for the departures
in 1908.
- When the ordinary cleanliness
H. which the American or the Europe;
is accustomed is observed In the tro
a les and If intexicants are not perm
Al ted to dominate the individual Ii
= CONTINUED NEXT WEEK