The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-05
VagabOnd
from
Indiana
MARCH 5, 1886
ERNIE PYLE
OCALA. Fla. March 5.-You re-

nCALA. Fla. March 5.-You re-
~ member about the Panama
Canal How it turned out to be as
great a battle for the doctors as for
the engineers.
You know how Panama has gone
down in history as a great feat of
sanitation How they had to clean
up the yellow fever peril before they
could dig the big ditch.
Well, the Florida Canal isn't quite
the same, but don't think there isn't
health and sanitation problem,
The canal builders have a special
division called Medical and SAM
tation. to take care of it. An Army
doctor, Capt. H. j. Banton, is in
charge.
They don't have yellow fever this
far north. But they have malaria.
In 1884 malaria killed % people in
this county alone.
THE route of the Florida Canal
L in many places is nothing but
a swamp. In summer, it is filthy
with mosquitoes. The engineers
must crack this nut, or their men
will all be down with malaria.
So oil is being sprayed on the
swamps. Later. they'll drain as
many Swamps as they can. THEY'LL
dig bitches out of some of them. In
others, the underground is so thick
they can't dig, so they'll dynamite
bitches. They did that in Panama.
Next summer, if the oiling and
draining doesn't solve the problem.
they may have to scatter poison
over the swamps from airplanes.
All living quarters are tightly
screened.
a S work spreads, the canal route
L A will be divided into areas. at
least half a dozen of them. Each
area will have a physician and a
sanitary officer, and about 20 work
men. It's my guess that in two
years the mile-wide strip across
Florida will be as healthy as any
place in the world.
They don't expect trouble from
heat prostrations. People don't have
heat prostration down here, they
say It's i'll places like st. Louis.
where it's very cold in winter and
very hot in summer, that people
pass out from the heat. Anyhow, a
few calcium tablets a day Tor even
simple tablets of salt and sugar. will
keep down heat prostrations.
II II
7 ASKED them about snakes. And
l. it turned out they're really wor-
rying about snakes.
The country is thick with them.
Big ones, too. They killed a RATHER
the other day seven feet long and
five inches thick.
Snakes don't bother on the ex-
cavations. This land has already
been cleared, and anyhow, the ma
chinery scares them away. It's the
clearing parties, and the surveyors.
who have snake trouble. There are
800 men in the clearing parties, and
they all carry Snake-bite kits.
If a man is bitten, he grabs the
tourniquet out of his kit, and twists
it around his arm or leg. Then he
takes the little pointed razor blade
out of his kit, and Sits a cross over
the wound Then he takes the sue
ton pump, and pumps out the blood
as fast as he can. Then they rush
him to the nearest camp hospital,
and give him antivenin serum.
Only two men have been bitten
so far. Both by mocassins, while
working waist deep in water. Both
men lived.
THERE is no antidote for the
L coral snake. They're so beau
tiful. too. Very small, and with
alternate red, yellow and black
stripes running around their
bodies.
They killed 25 coral snakes while
building Camp Roosevelt.
If a coral snake bites you, you're
dead in Is minutes. There is only
one rather chimerical chance. That
is: if you were bit on the tip of
finger, and you had Ratchet in
the other hand, and within two or
three seconds chopped off your
whole f1nger-then, you might have
a slight chance of living. Other
wise, good-by.
The 5000 Workmen are all under
a strict safety program. They
have a record now of only one lost
time accident in every million man