390 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



In the larger places, however, these foul conditions are being amelio- 

 rated by the installation of waterworks and sewerage, together with 

 sanitary plumbing. 



Each house usually has a water-tight cistern, which collects the rain 

 water from the roof that is used for culinary and drinking purposes. 

 Before using this water is passed through an earthen-ware filter to insure 

 its purity. Since water is so often the conveyor of diseases, especially 

 of fevers in tropical countries, it is well to boil all water used for 

 drinking, thus destroying all germs that it may contain. 



The laundering is practically all done in the streams. (PL XXXIII, 

 tig. 2.) The laundress takes her pack of clothes on her head and 

 wends her way to the nearest stream, where she sits on a rock and 

 washes the clothes directly in the water. The clothes are afterwards 

 spread on the dry rocks or the near-by bushes to dry. This universal 

 habit of washing in the streams practically prohibits the using, with 

 safety, of river water for drinking. 



The houses are usually built upon piles or posts, being elevated 2 

 or more feet above the ground, thus giving them better ventilation 

 and drier conditions as well as lessening the intrusion of vermin and 

 insects. Many of the huts of the very poor, however, are built directly 

 on the ground and without an}^ floors, the occupants sleeping in ham- 

 mocks or sometimes on the ground. 



The native Porto Rican is much opposed to the night air, and there- 

 fore upon retiring he closes all of his windows and doors as tightly as 

 possible. As large families often occupy a single room the air becomes 

 very foul. It is believed that good ventilation, even in the night, 

 would be conducive to better sanitaiy conditions. 



The diet of the people varies greatly. For the veiy poor it con- 

 sists of what they can most easily obtain with the least expenditure of 

 either money or energy. Native fruits that grow practically wild 

 often form a large part of their living. Rice and beans are two staple 

 foods, and are found on the table of the rich as well as the poor. The 

 people who can afford it eat much meat, and oils and lard are very 

 freely used in cooking. It seems probable that animal foods are used 

 to a much greater extent than is conducive to the best of health, 

 especially in so warm a climate. Vegetables and maize should replace 

 a part of the present meat diet of the people. 



Naturally very little clothing is necessary, and the children of the 

 poor, often to the age of 10 years, dispense with it. 



It is not strange that in the North, where the winters are long and 

 cold, that some people should be unable to supply the necessaries of 

 life, but it seems almost incredible that in a tropical country, where 

 planting and sowing can be practiced every day in the year, and where 

 land is plenty, the mass of the people should be poverty stricken. 

 Such, however, is the case in Porto Rico, and the reason is not on the 

 surface of things, but is down in the primitive foundation of society. 





