The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
copyrighted. 1914 by Frank G. Car
penterl

copyrighted, lsl4, pN fidhh =. Nai-
penter)
Guayaquil, Ecuador.
~ UAYAQU1L is the New York of
Ecuador. II is the chief port OF
~ the country. It has an export
and import trade OF more than s20,OOO,ON
a year. and this will be quadrupled if the
place can be made healthy. 1t is import
ant to us that it should be so. for it is
the first port south OF Panama 1t is not
as for from Panama as is New York
from Chicago, and when the canal is COM
nleted it will be nearer Boston than from
Boston TO Liverpool The town lies about
60 miles from the ocean. 1t is on the wide
and deep Guayas river, up which boats
can'gc during the rainy season for 200 or
300 miles The town lies almost on the
equator 1t is under the shadow of the
snowy peaks of Chimborazo and Coto-
paxi, but it is surrounded by jungle. Just
now it is afflicted with bubonic plague
and yellow fever and these conditions
will have TO be wiped out before Ecuador
can be allowed the free use of the Pan
anna canal.
The Ecuadorans have come to realize
the seriousness of their situation. They
know that their ports must be made
development. The government has been
discussing the question for several years
and foreign experts have been called in
10 make plans for the celaning of Guaya-
quill Dr. Gorgas has been here and
given suggestions, and scheme after
scheme has been proposed TO remedy the
evil. Just now a contract with J. G.
White G. Co. of New York and London
is under way. That firm has had its
engineers on the ground and 1t is ready
to enter into a contract for a series or
public improvements that will cost Slo'
100000. This sum will be enough to do
the things Immediately necessary. 1t
will pave the streets. put in sewers, in
crease the water supply and inaugurate a
systematic upbuildng and renovation that
will make the port safe for the traveller
and trader
At present Guayaquil is so dangerous
that no one stops here who can help
it The new cases of bubonic pleague
now rumber 10 or more every day ana
there have been 20 new cases of yellow
fever reported within the past two
weeks. The officials have begun to
Naccinate for the plague and the mo-
ment the traveller lands he is grabbed
by the doctor and the plague serum is
injected into his arm. He then gets
certificate proving that he has been
Vaccinated, and he has to show this
before he is allowed TO go INTO the III
terror There are two kinds of vaccin-
alton given for the plague. The one
used here is the Haffkine process. 1t
consists in injecting the dead cultures
of The plague bacilli. The needle hurts
as it goes into your arm and you have
at the end a little pouch of juice con-
tainlng some millions of bacilli under
the skin. The arm is sore short
while but the vaccine does not make
YOU sick This is supposed TO render
one immune from the plague for sew
eral months. The other form of vac
cination is by the Yersn antitoNin.
II is given only TO those who have
caught the plague. and is supposed to
neutralize the poison in the system.
During the stay at Panama | had
long chat with DR.. r. c. Perry the
chief health officer who is in charge
of the sanitary conditions at the
isthmus with regard to the ports along
the west coast. lie has visited every
port from Callao to Panama and has
spent much time i'm studying the sit
uation at GuaNaquil. He tells me that
the only way in which this city can
he cleaned is by practically rebuilding
it. The town of today is sWarmlng
with the rats the fleas from which
carry the plague. The most of ITS
houses stand close to the ground and
many of them have wooden floors,
unGer which the rats can burroW' Ihe
walls have wooden posts upon which
are nailed laths of split bamboo. This