Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-03-23

Europe. It is wonderful to see how
amenable the patients are to their
every suggestion.
last year the medical division OF
the company treated more than 49,
| that there is tremendous amount of
illness lurking around the Carrib-
can. There isn't. General William
! c.. Gorgas, after four. months trip,
said: Il am convinced that neither
! plague nor yellow fever exist any
where on the literal coast of the Car
ribean.'' But for the first time in
the history of many Of these regions
! thousands of persons are finding a
hospital they can go to when they
are ILL.,
It keeps the NJ. D. o., as the dis
trict medical officer is known, mighty
busy-keeping tab on the health of his
district. His life might be taken
,, from page of Kipling. In Costa
Riea, for example, there are two
company hospitals and eight dispen-
saries.-- The d. NJ. o. keeps in touch
with all, The. d. M. o. here in
Colombia makes his headquarters in
a village called Cienega He is a
graduate of Tufts College and he
uses canoe, the railroads, mule, and
automobile on his rounds.
In its medical divisions in Panama,
Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia,
honduras, and Cuba, the United
Fruit Company has IA hospitals and
"a dispensaries or medical stations.
These are the centers from which the
work radiates and it is in the hands
of competent men. In Guatemala,
for instance, there are five doctors
and five staff nurses and 81 other
hospital employees. The five physici-
ans are graduates, respectively, of
Aberdeen, johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt,
Tulane universities and the Univer-
sity of London.
All the work is systematiZed II
company eEploye is too i'll 70 be
treated at a dispenSary or if his
home conditions are unfavorable he
is sent to the hospital. If necessary
he is isolated. But thousands of non
employees attend the hospitals and
dispensaries, for a very low rate is
made them. Many of the patients
here in Colombia have never seen
sheets and pillow cases before. But
they soon learn to like them and the
daily bath, too Many lives are
saved by the observance of what we,
in America, would call the most ele-
mentary rules of hygiene and hos
pital treatment which these people
receive for the first time. Ninety
five per cent of the native patients
at the eompany's hospital in Santa
Marta are found to have hook worms
OF this ailment they are quickly
cured. When they leave the hospital
they are stronger and healthier than
they have probably been for many
years. For the poorer patients the
hospitals are wonderful expoSitions
OF modern methods. They go away
missionaries for what they have seen
and experienced.
But the widespread, well-organ-
lied work of the company's medical
service gees beyond that of curing
patients. It's efforts for the proven
ton of disease have been unusually
All transmissable dis
eases are classified as to where they
originated and that's point No in
stamping cut sickness. Last year
the company had no quarantinable
diseases such as smallpox, yellow
fever or plague On any of its estates.
experience the big work is
constantly advancing and gaining in
strength. The broad and enlightened |
policy of this company cannot alone
be measured in dollars and cents. 1t
has brought to the company a pres
tige in the American tropics that |
money could not buy and to the many |
American doctors. nurses and santa |
ton engineers who have successfully !
fought the good fight it has brought |
4 lifelong satisfaction.