102 IIEAI.TH CONDITIONS OF PANAMA. 



Much practical attention is being paid to the prevention of its spread 

 by flies and other insects. The association between tiies and disease became 

 very prominent in connection with the American camps in Florida in 189S. 

 Since then the United States medical awthorities have made considerable 

 progress in measures for getting rid of flies in connection with habitations 

 and camps, special attention being paid to preventing them having access to 

 latrines and food. On the Canal Zone all latrines, no matter of what 

 form, are made fly-proof. 



Most of the measures ado])ted by Colonel Gorgas were 

 specifically designed with a view to suppressing yellow fever, 

 malaria, plague, and other insect-'borne diseases by — 



(a) Killing insects and vermin. 



(b) Eliminating or destroying their breeding places. 



((-) Making it as difficult as possible for them to get at 

 infected matter and at human beings. 



Such in broad outline are the distinctive features of Colonel 

 Gorgas's .system of sanitation. 



The Hon. Joseph Baynes, of Natal, has initiated and is the 

 champion in South Africa of a somewhat similar policy as 

 regards animal diseases. Dipping does for animals what Colonel 

 (lorgas's system does for human beings— -it prevents the spread 

 of disease by insects. In both cases, professional men have been 

 slow to accept the results and to act tipon them. In 1910, at my 

 suggestion, a circular was sent to each of the managers of the 

 Rand Mines-Eckstein Group of companies, instructing them to 

 take steps to deal with flies in the compounds, btit I Ijelieve very 

 little has been done, owing, no dou])t, to the fact that many of the 

 mine doctors are n.ot convinced that flies are a serious danger to 

 health. 



So far as I know, Khartoum is the only place besides the 

 Panama where the health authorities have concentrated atten- 

 tion on preventing insects from spreading disease. Dr. Balfour, 

 Director of the Wellcome Research Laboratories, and also Medi- 

 cal Oflicer of Health of Khartoum, has distributed among the 

 inhabitants a " Handbook on Sanitation," which is intended to 

 make the public " con\'ersant with the main lines of sanitary 

 policy which are followed in the city." Nearly the whole of the 

 Handbook is devoted to the reduction and elimination of insects 

 and vermin — mosquitoes, flies, sand flies, bed bugs, rats, etc. 

 "The consequence is that Khartoum, like the Canal Zone, is not 

 only almost mosquito-less, but also nearly fly-less, and the results 

 are equally gratifying, the death rate for the two years ended 30th 

 September last being under ten per thousand per annum. 



The saving of human and animal life which has followed 

 the adoption of Colonel Gorgas's system in the Panama and of 

 dipping in South Africa points to the conclusion that we have 

 hitherto greatly under-estimated the extent and character of 

 the mischief done by insects. 



. It is now recognised that dipping helps to keep in good health 

 not only cattle and sheep, but also horses, mules, donkevs and 

 dogs. 



