THE PANAMA ROUTE FOR A SHIP CANAL. 311 



It is possible also that a fissure might open which would drain the canal, 

 and if it remained open, might destroy it. This possibility should not be 

 erected by the fancy into a threatening danger. If a timorous imagination 

 is to be the guide, no great work can be undertaken anywhere. This risk may 

 be classed with that of a great conflagration in a city like that of Chicago in 

 1871, or Boston in 1872. 



It is the opinion of the commission that such danger as exists from earth- 

 quakes is essentially the same for both the Nicaragua and Panama routes, and 

 that in neither case is it sufficient to prevent the construction of the canal. 



The relative health fulness of the two routes has already been touched 

 upon. There is undoubtedly at the present time a vast amount of un- 

 healthfulness on the Panama route, and practially none on the Nic- 

 aragua route, but this is accounted for when it is remembered, as has 

 also been stated, that there is practically no population on the Nicaragua 

 route and a comparatively large population along the Panama line. 

 There is a widespread, popular impression that the Central American 

 countries are necessarily intensely unhealthful. This is an error, in 

 spite of the facts that the construction of the Panama Kailroad was 

 attended w T ith an appalling amount of sickness and loss of life, and that 

 records of many epidemics at other times and in other places exist in 

 nearly all these countries. There are the best of good reasons to 

 believe that with the enforcement of sanitary regulations, which are 

 now well understood and completely available, the Central American 

 countries would be as healthful as our southern states. A proper recogni- 

 tion of hygienic conditions of life suitable to a tropical climate would 

 work wonders in Central America in reducing the death-rate. At the 

 present time the domestic administration of most of the cities and 

 towns of Nicaragua and Panama, as well as the generality of Central 

 American cities, is characterized by the absence of practically every- 

 thing which makes for public health, and by the presence of nearly every 

 agency working for the diseases which flourish in tropical climates. 

 When the United States Government reaches the point of actual con- 

 struction of an isthmian canal the sanitary features of that work should 

 be administered and enforced in every detail with rigor of the most 

 exacting military discipline. Under such conditions, epidemics could 

 either be avoided or reduced to manageable dimensions, but not other- 

 wise. The commission concluded that, 'existing conditions indicate 

 hygienic advantages for the Nicaragua route although it is probable 

 that no less effective sanitary measures must be taken during construc- 

 tion in the one case than in the other.' 



The time required for passing through a trans-isthmian canal is 

 affected by the length, by the number of locks, by the number of curves, 

 and by the sharpness of curvature. The speed of a ship and conse- 

 quently the time of passage is also affected by the depth of water under 

 its keel. It is well known that the same power applied to a ship in deep 



