22 LOSS THROUGH INSECTS THAT CARRY DISEASE. 



decrease in the number of mosquitoes in the city. These opera- 

 tions were directed primarily against the yellow-fever mosquito, and 

 inciclentall}^ against the other common species that inhabit rain-water 

 barrels. Against the Anopheles in the suburbs the same kind of work 

 was done as was done in Havana, with exceptionally good results. 



The same operations were carried on in the villages between Pan- 

 ama and Colon. There are some twenty of these villages, running 

 from 500 to 3,000 inhabitants each. Not a single instance of failure 

 has occurred in the disinfection of these small towns, and the result 

 of the whole work has been the apparent elimination of yellow fever 

 and the very great reduction of malarial fever. 



The remarkable character of these results can only be judged accu- 

 rately by comparative methods. It is well knowni that during the 

 French occupation there was an enormous mortality among the 

 European employees, and this was a vital factor in the failure of the 

 work. Exact losses can not be estimated, since the work was done 

 under 17 different contractors. These contractors were charged $1 

 a day for every sick man to be taken care of in the hospital of the 

 company. Therefore it often happened that when a man became 

 sick his emploj^er discharged him, so that he would not have to bear 

 the expense of hospital charges. There was no police patrol of the 

 territory and many of these men died along the line. Colonel 

 Gorgas has stated that the English consul, who was at the Isthmus 

 during the period of the French occupation, is inclined to think 

 that more deaths of employees occurred out of the hospital than in it. 

 A great many were found to have died along the roadside while en- 

 deavoring to find their way to the city of Panama. The old superin- 

 tendent of the French hospital states that one day 3 of the medical 

 staff died from yellow fever, and in the same month 9 of the medical 

 staff. Thirty-six Roman Catholic sisters were brought over as nurses, 

 and 2-1: died of yellow fever. On one vessel 18 young French engi- 

 neers came over, and in a month after their arrival all but one died. 



Now that the relation of the mosquito to yellow fever is well under- 

 stood, it was found during the first two years under Doctor (Jorgas 

 that, although there were constantly one or more yellow-fever cases 

 in the hospital, and although the nurses and physicians Avere all non- 

 immunes, not a single case of yellow fever was contracted in that 

 way. The nurses never seemed to consider that they were running 

 any risk in attending yellow fever cases night and day in screened 

 wards, and the wives and families of officers connected with the hos- 

 pital lived about the grounds, knowing that yellow fever w^as con- 

 stantly being brought into the grounds and treated in near-by build- 

 ings. Americans, sick from any cause, had no fear when being 

 treated in beds immediately adjoining those of yellow-fever pa- 

 tients. Colonel Gorgas and Doctor Carter lived in the old ward 



