746 SANITATION OF THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE. 



sula running south into the Pacific and eas}^ of defense. It was so 

 strongly fortified that no attempts thereafter were made to carry it 

 by storm. It stands about miles west of the site of the old town, 

 of which abundant ruins are still visible. 



In former days a good paved highway ran straight north through 

 the mountains toward the convenient port of Puerto Bello, but when 

 the railroad was constructed the northern terminus was located at 

 the present town of Colon. The line of the canal, so far as it is at 

 present fixed, runs about 50 miles north and south, between the port 

 of Colon on the north and Panama on the south. It follows in gen- 

 eral, beginning from the northern end, the valley of the Chagres 

 River and one of its branches — the Obispo — up to the top of the 

 divide at Culebra, some 35 miles, and then down the valley of the Rio 

 Grande to Panama, some 15 miles. Contrar}^ to the general impres- 

 sion that I had formed before coming down, the country is rolling 

 and well drained, being essentially a mountainous district. The 

 Chagres, of course, has marsh and lowlands in its valley, but no more 

 than half the smaller rivers and larger creeks of the mountainous dis- 

 tricts of Alabama or New York. The country in general is very 

 attractive, high and variegated as it is, with rolling hills and 

 tropical verdure as far as the eye can reach. Insects and reptiles 

 are scarce, and our friend, the mosquito, could not be called abun- 

 dant. I believe any dweller of Staten Island or New Jersey, after a 

 week's residence, would leave with the impression that there were 

 none of the latter. 



For purposes of canal building the United States has purchased 

 a tract of land extending along the whole length of the line of the 

 canal 10 miles in width, of which the canal is in the center. The 

 history of this Zone with regard to health has been exceedingly 

 lugubrious, just as it has occurred everywhere else in the Tropics or 

 wherever a large, unacclimated population has been brought in, 

 either for military or industrial purposes. The railroad w^as built in 

 the early fifties, and its cost was greatly increased and the work itself 

 several times stopped on account of the heavy mortality among the 

 unacclimated laborers l)rought here. Later, between the years 1880 

 and 1889, the same thing occurred on a much larger scale in the 

 French attempt to dig a canal under De Lesseps. The diseases 

 causing the most mortality at these times were yellow fever and 

 malaria. 



At the present time on the Zone there are 40,000 inhabitants, 

 Panama containing 20,000, Colon 10,000, and the towns along the 

 canal between Panama and Colon 10,000. The prevailing disease is 

 maliiria. Leprosy also exists. In Panama we have at present some 

 yellow fever and a great deal of beriberi, and, of course, all other 



