570 CIVIL ENGINEERING 



great enterprise of excavating a navigable channel between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific oceans (and concerning their ultimate suc- 

 cess there is almost no reasonable doubt) will depend largely upon 

 the assistance they receive from medical science and its allied 

 sciences, such as hygiene, bacteriology, and chemistry. 



Geological science will also play an important part in the de- 

 sign and building of many portions of this great work, for a com- 

 prehensive and correct knowledge of the geology of the Isthmus will 

 prevent the making of many costly mistakes, similar to those that 

 resulted from the last attempt to connect the two oceans. 



Again, the handling of this vast enterprise will involve from start 

 to finish and to an eminent degree the science of economics. That 

 this science will be utilized to the utmost throughout the entire 

 work is assured by the character and professional reputation of 

 both the Chief Engineer and the members of the Commission. 



Notwithstanding, though, the great precautions and high hopes 

 for a speedy and fortunate conclusion of the enterprise with which 

 all concerned are starting out, many unanticipated difficulties are 

 very certain to be encountered, and many valuable lives are likely 

 to be expended on the Isthmus before the first steamer passes 

 through the completed canal. Engineering work in tropical coun- 

 tries always costs much more and takes much longer to accom- 

 plish than is at first anticipated; and disease, in spite of all pre- 

 cautions, is very certain to demand and receive its toll from those 

 who rashly and fearlessly face it on construction works in the tierra 

 caliente. But with American engineers in charge, and with the 

 finances of the American Government behind the project, success 

 is practically assured in advance. 



What the future of civil engineering is to be, who can say? If it 

 continues to advance as of late by almost geometrical progression, 

 the mind of man can hardly conceive what it will become in fifty 

 years more. Every valuable scientific discovery is certainly going 

 to be grasped quickly by the engineers and put to practical use 

 by them for the benefit of mankind, and it is only by their close 

 association with the pure scientists that the greatest possible devel- 

 opment of the world can be attained. 



