702 Mr. A. Henry Savage Landor [June 18, 



sanitation, such as we have few examples in colonies belonging to 

 European powers. 



They collected and organised a physically well-selected working 

 force, and housed it in sensibly-built and kept, well-aired, well-lighted 

 buildings. They provided all these men with first-class food of a 

 nourishing and wholesome character ; and last, but not least, they 

 enforced stringent laws practically suppressing intoxication. The 

 spirits of the people on the Zone are kept up, not with whisky and 

 absinthe, but by imported theatrical companies, by bands, lectures, 

 dances, clubs, tournaments, etc. The result of this is that to-day 

 the Americans have there a force of nearly 44,000 men— all in a 

 remarkably sound physical condition. 



There is a remarkaljle man in the Zone in Colonel Gorgas, the 

 head of the Department of Sanitation. This department is now 

 separated from the Government of the Canal Zone, and has been 

 made an independent department. 



The work of Colonel Gorgas can be summed up in a few words. 

 Panama was one of the deadliest spots on earth. Colonel Gorgas 

 has rendered it one of the healthiest. Under him are a number of 

 practical and hard-working medical men, whose enthusiasm and devo- 

 tion for their work are quite exceptional in these matter-of-fact days. 



It is the general belief that yellow fever and malarial fever have 

 been stamped out of the Isthmus by killing off all the mosquitoes. 

 It is not by killing mosquitoes, whether they be " stegomyia, anopheles, 

 or the humble culex,'' that yellow fever and malaria have been 

 stamped out, but by something much greater, I think, which the 

 public does not seem to realise. Let me explain in a few words. 



Mosquitoes hve in happiness, as you know, under conditions 

 which are deadly to human beings, such as intense heat, darkness, 

 stifling still air saturated with dampness, and within the radius of 

 fetid emanations of rotten vegetation, putrid water, or decayed 

 matter of any kind. Three things are deadly to mosquitoes : the 

 powerful sunlight, pure Avater, and clean fresh air. It is just the 

 other way round with human beings. Sunlight, fresh air, and pure 

 water give life, strength and happiness. What happens, then ? 

 Change in any locality the conditions which make life impossible for 

 mosquitoes, and you will make the inhabitants healthy^ — at least, as 

 far as malaria is concerned. 



My contention is— and I have had many opportunities of verifying 

 my statement — that local conditions, and not mosquitoes, are primarily 

 responsible for malarial attacks. I have seen cases of yellow fever 

 and malaria where 7io stegomyia or mosquitoes of any kind were to 

 be found. Mind you, this does not mean that mosquitoes cannot be 

 infected when sucking the blood of an infected person, or even in a 

 more direct way in the region they inhabit. There is no reason why 

 there should not be feverish mosquitoes just as there are feverish 

 people. When you dissect an infected anopheles you certainly find 



