Redemption of the Isthmus. UNIVERSAL BAR. JOSE PADROS, Proprietor, 329 In front of Panama Railroad Station, Colon, Republic of Panama. DIRECT IMPORTER OF THE HIGHEST GRADES OF WINES, LIQUORS SPANISH PRESERVES, TOBACCO, CIGARS AND CIGARETTES. Wholesale and ORDERS GIVEN PROMPT ATTENTION. Retail. PRICES CAN'T BE BEAT. At that period it must be said that the mosquito theory relative to the spread of yellow fever and malaria had not become an accepted fact. The inroads made by yellow fever in the ranks of the French employes was taken as the workings of the hand of fate and accepted philosophically. No attention was paid to draining stagnant pools and low places; no safeguard was thrown about dwelling-places of employes in the way of screening; anyone suggesting fumigation would have been laughed to scorn. The administrative heads of canal affairs under Amcrican control foresaw that the first move on the board in order to insure success must be the cleaning up of the canal strip and the cities of Panama and Colon. It therefore behooved them to exercise careful judgment in the selection of a man to put at the head of this important line of operations. That selection resulted in the sending to the Isthmus of "the man who has made good", Col. W. C. Gorgas, who had acquired valuable experience in the Cuban sanitary campaign. From When the sanitary forces first lined up on the Isthmus in 1904, it didn't look such a difficult task. May to December there were only a few sporadic cases of yellow fever and these were quickly squelched. It looked as if Yellow Jack was going to capitulate his fortress without opposition. But as the employes began streaming to the Isthmus furnishing abundance of suitable raw material for voracious members of the anopheles and stegomyia tribes, a battle royal was begun. And it was a battle com royal. From March to September 1905, the monest sight on the streets of Panama was some detachment of the fumigation brigade. The city was fumigated in sections once, then again, yet again, and in the fourth and supreme effort there was a general fumigation over the entire city at the same time. Tons upon tons of paper went to plaster up the crevices in the walls of houses, and some of the crevices in some of the houses would easily have admitted the historic barn door. The fumes of sulphur and pyretheum were in constant ascent to the upper air,, while all around a Pelee-like aspect prevailed. Those were trying days to the householder. He'd barely recovered from his last dose before men with ladders, buckets and rolls of paper were again besieging his premises. It was a nip and tuck battle for three or four months in 1905. At one time the outcome might be said to have. looked dubious, but the leader of the sanitary forces never wavered in his belief in his theory, and the contest went steadily on. At last toward the end of 1905, results began to be apparent. Sources of infection were destroyed, and on November 11 of that year occurred the last case of yellow fever in Panama. The last case in Colon was reported on May 17, 1906. The Department of Sanitation of today has a magnificently equipped plant, ramified into every part of the Zone., The two main hospitals at Ancon and Colon are fortified by line hospitals at all the principal settlements along the canal route. In addition, at all these points a dispensary, district physician and sanitary inspection force is maintamed. When the writer passed over the railroad early in 1904, the jungle reigned supreme at nearly all the little settlements built up by the French. Now one sees only well-ordered villages with the brush and grass cut away from around them; drainage ditches running in every direction, sidewalks, and in some cases electric lights. Up to 1907 the lepers and insane were housed at Miraflores, a station on the railroad about six miles from Redemption of the Isthmus. 331 Panama. During this year the insane were removed to new quarters on the Ancon Hospital site, and the lepers have been segregated at Palo Seco, a point on the bay, west of La Boca. Ancon Hospital possesses a finelyequipped laboratory and all other facilities required for an up-to-date hospital. The convalescents are nursed back to complete health at Taboga Sanitarium, an institution on Taboga island founded by the French, and afterwards remodeled and enlarged by the Commission. There are two American ce meteries, one at Monkey Hill, or Mount Hope, on Atlantic side, and the other at the foot of Ancon Hill between La Boca and the Ancon Hospital buildings. The sick are carried in either direction on the railroad each day in hospital cars. Figures are often dry, but occasionally they are eloquent and speak for themselves. In October, 1884 when the French had 19,234 men on the Isthmus, they lost 161. In 1905, when the Commission and P. R. R. had 19,685 in their employ, they lost but 55. The death rate of the general population of the Canal Zone, and the cities of Panama and Colon in 1905 was 53.78 per thousand; in 1906, 49.10, and of the 1907 fiscal year, 42.08, a steady diminution in mortality, as will be observed. The total deaths from all causes among employes in 1907 numbered 1273, of which 104 were due to accident. The casualty rate was unusually large, due to an increase in the number of railroad and blasting accidents. The negro employe death rate compared to the whites is 3 to 1. It is apparentefrom this that the white man stands the conditions on the Isthmus just about three times as well as the negro, a statement that would have been flatly contradicted a few years ago. The negro death rate shows a constant decrease however. The total number of cases of yellow fever reported from May, 1904, to the last case known is 112. Out of this number, fifty were fatal. Pneumonia claims more victims H. B. HYATT-Watchmaker and Jeweler. EMPIRE, CANAL ZONE. Gramophones and Typewriters Repaired. Wedding Rings, Latest Style, A Specialty. than any other disease. Malaria, tuberculosis and typhoid fever follow in the order named. During the 1907 fiscal year, 11,975 persons were treated at Commission hospitals. In June, and again in August, 1905, single cases of bubonic plague occurred at La Boca. There was no spread. In 1907, a case of yellow fever was taken from one of the boats in the harbor. None of the other passengers exposed became infected. In August, September and October, 1906, there was not a death among the 6,000 American men, women and children on the Isthmus, a truly remarkable occurrence. A newcomer on the Isthmus nowadays wonders at the absence of mosquitoes in Panama and Colon and the settled portions of the canal strip. The reason is revealed when it is stated that during the fiscal year 2,736,509 gallons of mosquito oil were sprinkled on the streets and low places. The quarantine end of the Department of Sanitation is the watchdog of the Isthmus. A rigid inspection is made of passengers and crews on incoming boats, and in case of those touching at infected ports, the passengers are held in detention for five days. The total vaccinations for the 1907 fiscal year reported by this service were 34,589. Total net immigration for the year was 30,545. Number of immigrants rejected, 44. The quarantine station on the Pacific side will be located shortly on the island of Culebra, in Panama Bay. The longer one remains on the inured he becomes to the conditions. majority of cases, and is demonstrated Isthmus, the better This is true in the by the constantly diminishing average sick rate among the employes. For one while during December, 1907, the average daily hos Redemption of the Isthmus. 333 pital admissions were lower than any similar period since sanitary operations have been conducted on the present scale. THE KING PIN OF THE CANAL. The true source of the Chagres has never been accurately determined. It has, however, two principal branches, one (the larger) known as the Pequeni, rising in the Cordillera San Blas, which at that point forms the Continental Divide, very close to the Atlantic Coast. The other branch has its origin about twenty miles (by the river), above Alhajuela, at which point the French Canal Company established a gauging station. Between Alhajuela and the Caribbean, the principal tributaries are the Gatun, Chilibre. Obispo, Gatuncillo and Trinidad, named in the order their of joining the Chagres. In the dry season these may be regarded as negligible, but during rainy months they become tropical torrents, with a volume not to be ignored. None of the tributaries have been followed to their source, with the exception of the Obispo, although the Isthmian Canal Commission has established gauging stations on the Trinidad and Gatuncillo, about eight miles above Gatun. Few rivers show a greater variation in the amount of discharge at different periods of the year than the Chagres. In the dry season, it is a clear, quietly flowing stream, while during the rainy season it becomes a great river, subject to sudden and violent freshets and floods. The following table shows the maximum, the minimum and the mean discharges at each of the three principal gauging stations operated by the Isthmian Canal Commission: |