lOO HEALTH CONDITIONS OF PANAMA. 



The first French Director, M. Dingier, came to the Isthmus with his 

 wife and three children. At the end of the li'rst six months all had died of 

 yellow fever except himself. One of the French engineers, who was still 

 on the Isthmus when we first arrived, stated that he came over with a party 

 of seventeen young Frenchmen. In a month they had all died of yellow 

 fever except himself. The Superintendent of the railroad brought to the 

 Isthmus his three sisters ; within a month they had all died of yellow 

 fever. The Mother Superior of the Sisters nursing in Ancon Hospital 

 told me that she had come out with twenty-four Sisters. Within a few 

 years twenty-one had died. 



M. Bunau Varilla, writing of the busiest period when the 

 Canal was tinder French control, states : 



Out of each loo individuals who arrived on the Isthmus it is not an 

 exaggeration to say that on an average not more than 20 were able to 

 keep at their posts in the construction camp. 



Referring to the fact that under the French practically all 

 the manual labour was done l)y negroes, M. Bunau X'arilla 

 writes : 



Death within three months was almost certain for white labourers on 

 the Canal works. 



Now let us see what has taken place on the Isthmus under 

 the Americans. Colonel Gorgas went to the Panama in June, 

 1904. Owing, however, to red tape and official delays, he was 

 not able to accomplish much during the first year. Mr. W. F. 

 Johnson in " Four Centuries of the Panama Canal," writes : 



It took many weeks to get mosquito netting for- the windows of the 

 Canal office buildings, and then not enough was supplied, and in the m.ean- 

 time some of the most valuable men of the staff were prostrated by the 

 bites of malarial mosquitoes. The Chief Sanitary Officer wanted netting 

 for all the official buildings in the Canal Zone. This request was refused 

 as extravagant and unnecessary. Then he asked for at least enough to 

 enclose the verandahs of the hospitals. This, too. was refused, and he 

 was told tliat there was no need of enclosing more than half the verandahs, 

 and that even then a part of ihe space should l)c solidly l)oarded up instead 

 of screened. 



Howe\er, the Chief Sanitary Officer persisted ; he gradually 

 overcame all opposition. By the end of 1905 yellow fever had 

 been entirely suppressed, and since the end of 1907 the Isthmian 

 Canal Sanitation Department has shown results which are prob- 

 ably unparalleled in the history of human achievement. 



I do not think I can better convey an impression of the im- 

 I)rovement in the health conditions effected under the American 

 Administration than by means of the following table, which gives 

 the disease death-rate per thousand i)er annum among the Canal 

 employes from the beginning of 1906 until the end of last 

 year : — 



