ANTIMOSQUITO MEASURES 185 



warfare against mosqiiitos has begun to be carried on 

 with considerable vigour in Central America. The 

 population of tlie town numbers about 2,400. The 

 existence of yellow fever would close down the con- 

 siderable trade which is done in the exportation of 

 fruit to the United States, hence the necessity for 

 war against the stegomyia ; and in July 1 907 the 

 United States medical officer reported that the authori- 

 ties had oiled all water-containers — viz. 113 cisterns, 

 167 barrels, and 26 wells, and that all surface pools 

 were either drained or oiled thoroughly. Result that 

 stegomyia was reported not numerous. 



ANTI- YELLOW FEVER CAMPAIGN IN THE 



CANAL ZONE 



This campaign was pushed forward with great 

 vigour from the moment that the Isthmian Canal 

 Commissioners took over the health administration of 

 the Zone. 



The plan of campaign lay in rigorously prohibiting 

 the keeping of stagnant water, and in screening, house- 

 to-house inspection, and the infliction of fines if larv£e 

 were discovered. As the result, yellow fever has been 

 banished. Colonel Gorgas, under whose able direction 

 these successful operations have been carried out, writes 

 in his 1908 Report that "it is now more than three 

 years since a case of yellow fever has developed in the 

 Isthmus, the last case occurring in November 1905. 

 The health and sick rates will compare favourably 

 with most parts of the United States." Surely a most 

 successful campaign. 



