ENGINEERING. 



EPIDEMIC DISEASES IN 1883. 317 



by purchase, running southward through Mexi- 

 co to Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, a fifth 

 transcontinental line, connecting with the East- 

 ern railroads at Kansas City. The Canadian Pa- 

 cific is rapidly approaching completion. South 

 of the United States there are, besides the Pan- 

 ama railroad, three Mexican interoceanic lines 

 chartered and partly constructed. The most 

 northerly crosses Tampico to San Bias and is 

 called the Mexican Central. The Mexican Na- 

 tional railroad crosses from Vera Cruz, by way 

 of the city of Mexico, to Manzanillo. The third 

 is the line across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 

 which was begun with the aid of subsidies by 

 an American company, but became forfeit by 

 lapse of the term stipulated for completion, 

 and was confiscated and carried on by the 

 Mexican Government. 



The southern route for a Pacific railway now 

 followed by the Southern Pacific, the Atchi- 

 son, Topeka, and Santa Fe, and the new Atlan- 

 tic and Pacific lines, was proposed when the 

 project of a transcontinental railway was first 

 under discussion, but was rejected by Con- 

 gress. It has the advantage of avoiding the 

 elevations north of Colorado and in the Ne- 

 vada plateau. The Northern Pacific, where it 

 crosses the Rocky mountains, is a remarkable 

 example of railroad engineering. There is a 

 gradual ascent on the western side through a 

 magnificent forest- region to Clark's Fork. At 

 Missoula, in this valley, it assirnes the charac- 

 ter of a mountain railway, which is preserved 

 up to the point where it emerges in the valley 

 of the Yellowstone. It crosses the summit 

 range, the Cascades, at Mullen Pass, through a 

 tunnel nearly 4,000 feet in length, at an eleva- 

 tion of 6,560 feet. The descent on the oppo- 

 site slope is by moderate gradients through 

 the valleys of the head-waters of the Missouri, 

 the Jefferson, the Madison, the East and West 

 Gallatin, and finally the Yellowstone, which it 

 leaves at Glendive. 



The construction of a transcontinental rail- 

 road across South America is an engineering 

 problem the conditions of which are entirely 

 different from those of the North American 

 routas. Henry Meiggs, when building in Peru 

 his first Andes railroad, till then the most mag- 

 nificent mountain railway in the world, which 

 ascends to altitudes as great as Mont Blanc, in 

 which the barometric pressure is only 400 milli- 

 metres, and fire will scarcely burn, intended it 

 as a link in a railroad across the continent. 

 This work of genius was thrown into the shade 

 by his Lima-Oroya railroad, which ascends on 

 each side through 44 tunnels and over dizzy 

 viaducts, to the summit-level in the Cima- 

 Jalexa tunnel, 1,860 metres long and 4,769 

 metres above the level of the sea. The project 

 of a transcontinental railway was not only pre- 

 mature, but the location of the route by Meiggs 

 was through countries which, though possess- 

 ing unlimited natural resources, were socially 

 backward. An interoceanic road between the 

 more progressive states of Chili and the Ar- 



gentine Republic is much more feasible as a 

 work of engineering, and commercially more 

 promising. The project was under considera- 

 tion at the time when Meiggs carried out his 

 stupendous works. A convention between the 

 two governments has been in existence many 

 years, but they do not seem to desire such close 

 commercial communication. The distance be- 

 tween the two capitals in a direct line is only 

 375 miles. The dangers from water and an 

 exuberent vegetation, which are found in the 

 Brazilian route, are here absent. There was no 

 known practicable pass in the Andes, but no 

 technical examination of the mountains had 

 yet been made. Lately a gap in the chain has 

 been discovered farther south, in Northern 

 Patagonia, which would afford an easy passage. 



EPIDEMIC DISEASES IN 1883. With the ex- 

 ception of cholera and yellow fever, there has 

 been no wide-spread epidemic of disease dur- 

 ing the year; but these have been manifested 

 with their usual virulence and activity. Eu- 

 rope and the United States escaped an epidemic, 

 but Egypt suffered almost as much from the 

 devastations of cholera as from the effects of 

 her civil war, and certain towns in Mexico were 

 almost depopulated by yellow fever and the 

 resulting panic. Concerning the cholera in 

 Egypt, it is officially stated that the deaths 

 from the disease were in excess of 48,000, and 

 probably reached 50,000. This epidemic first 

 appeared at Damietta, on the 24th of June, 

 1883. The city itself had a population of 

 about 32,000. On the 27th of June cholera 

 was reported from Port Said, and on the 30th 

 of June at Samanoud, but it was not until 

 the 15th of July that the disease reached 

 Cairo. A great panic prevailed throughout 

 Egypt, and on the earliest report of the exist- 

 ence of cholera at Damietta, the people fled 

 in great numbers ; a majority of them depart- 

 ing for Turkey. The Porte required all refu- 

 gees from Egypt to undergo quarantine, either 

 at Beirut or Bourla at the entrance of the Bay 

 of Smyrna. Consul-General Heap reported to 

 the State Department from Constantinople, on 

 the 21st of July, that "the limited accommo- 

 dations at both places were enlarged by the 

 erection of temporary wooden barracks and 

 tents, but the panic-stricken refugees from 

 Alexandria came in such numbers that these 

 structures soon became insufficient to accom- 

 modate such crowds, and as each day brought 

 fresh arrivals, the sufferings of these people 

 from exposure to the burning sun and the 

 chilling night dews became very great, and 

 threatened to create the very evil it was the 

 intention to guard against. Those arriving at 

 Beirut were the greatest sufferers, and the 

 Turkish authorities were finally compelled to 

 telegraph to Alexandria, to give warning that 

 no more refugees could be received, or would 

 be allowed to land." 



Sanitary cordons were established in a some- 

 what desultory manner by the local authorities 

 of each place, from time to time, and such as 



