Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-10-19
THE PANAMA
CANAL AT WORK
By Frederic J. Haskin
[Continued from Editorial Page. ]

of the people seemed to be suffering
from a sort of chronic malaria. In a
town Of a thousand inhabitants there
was at least one funeral every day,
and often three. The bell of the old
church was kept busy tolling deaths.
Thus the Canal Zone is a sort of
sanitary island in a sea of disease, and
it is extremely important that there
should be facilities for taking care of
the diseased people who are constant
ly coming into the Zone
The hospitals at Ancon and Colon
are now being converted into per-
manent structures at a cost of over a
million dollars AS the population of
the isthmus Is much smaller than in
the construction days, the number of
beds will be reduced by half. The old
frame buildings, enclosed with screen,
will be replaced by the beautiful
structures of concrete, finished in n
sot buff color, with red tile roofs. The
facilities will be as perfect as modern
science can make them.
In addition to the hospitals, the
Health Department at Panama has
charge of two other institutions-the
leper colony and the insane asylum.
Maintain Lcper Colony
When the health work was begun
at Panama 1t was found that the gov
ernment was making feeble efforts 10
maintain a leper colony a few miles
from the city. Here a dozen lepers
dwelt miserably in huts, dependent
for their existence almost wholly
upon the bounty of one wealthy man
in the City of Panama. The sanitary
officers realized that they would have
lepers to contend with all the time
and that proper facilities must be
provided. Accordingly, a leper colony
was established on a peninsula almost
as isolated as an island, eight miles
from Panama. IT is one of the most
beautiful spots along the adjacent
coast.
The lepers are provided with COM
Portable cottages and each has his own
garden of flowers and vegetables They
are allowed to work and are paid for
whatever they do. Two white nurses,
a man and woman, are their con-
stant attendants. Such comfort and
happiness as these beings may enjoy
are here given them.
Even the experiment of letting
lepers marry has been tried. 1t is Il
we'll established fact that If the child
of two lepers is removed from it's par
ents imm ediately after birth it will not
develop the disease. At the Panama
colony, however, matrimony had to he
abolished, not for sanitary reasons but
because of the intense jealousy which
sprang up between the married and
unmarried lepers. Those who were
married necessarily had to have larger
quarters and enjoyed other advantages
which could not be given to single
ones. This produced so much ILL feel
in" in the little settlement of out
casts that the officials reluctantly
abolished matrimony and instituted a
rigid separation of the sexes.
IcperS In Colony
There are now about fifty-fve lepers
in the Panama leper colony, and they
are cared for by the Health Depart
ment for the Panama Government at
a charge of IS cents per day for each
patient. The need for maintaining
this establishment may be judged from
the fact that an old woman afflicted
with leprosy was found selling fruits
and vegetables on a corner in Panama
City.
The maintaining of this leper colony
has given the health officers a most
exceptional opportunity to study this