SANITATION OF THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE. 749 



as effectively as if we killed the man, and the measure would not 

 meet with such general opposition as the former proposition would. 

 In quinine we have discovered this poison. This xcgetable sub- 

 stance is harmless to man and fatal to the malarial parasite. The 

 greater number of practical tropical sanitarians, the Germans and the 

 Italians conspicuously, advocate and have been successful on these 

 lines — ^have gotten as large a proportion of the population as possible 

 to take small quantities of quinine with as much regularity as they 

 could; and thus have been successful, without adopting any other 

 measures, in doing away with malaria in the several localities. Or, 

 we can attack it from the side of the mosquito; do just what we 

 intend doing in Panama with regard to the Stegomyia: Cover all 

 water containers, clear up the yards, fix the roads so there Avill be no 

 puddles, have a regular system in all the towns of collecting gar- 

 bage and waste so there will be no cans around ; and ditching every- 

 where there are small breeding places in the neighborhood of dwell- 

 ings, and oil where ditching is not practicable. This latter method 

 of killing the mosquito is the method most in favor by English and 

 American tropical sanitarians. This alone has been successful in 

 eradicating malaria in many localities. 



Along the route of the Panama Canal the malaria problem, I think, 

 is more difficult to deal with and more serious than any place where 

 it has previously been tried. AVe therefore expect to adopt both 

 methods, and I am convinced that in this way we will be able to 

 protect our laborers from the serious mortality that has undone our 

 predecessors in this imj^ortant work. 



The other diseases to which we are subject, I think, will not give 

 us serious trouble, but Avill be controlled by the ordinary measures 

 usually adopted by a health department. 



Angon, Isthmian Canal Zone, 



February 10, 1905. 



