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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



canal. In 1904 active work was begun, 

 and Colonel Gorgas was fortunate in 

 having the services of Mr Le Prince, 

 who had been chief of his mosquito bri- 

 gades in Havana, and therefore was per- 

 fectly familiar with antimosquito meth- 

 ods. In Panama, as in Havana, the pop- 

 ulation had depended principally upon 

 rain water for domestic purposes, so that 

 every house had cisterns, water barrels, 

 and such receptacles for catching and 

 storing rain water. The city was divided 

 up into small districts with an inspector 

 in charge of each district. This inspector 

 was required to cover his territory at 

 least twice a week and to make a report 

 upon each building with regard to its 

 condition as to breeding places of mos- 

 quitoes. All the cisterns, water barrels, 

 and other water receptacles in Panama 

 were covered as in Havana, and in the 

 water barrels spigots were inserted so 

 that the covers would not have to be 

 taken off. 



Upon first inspection, in March, 4,000 

 breeding places were reported. At the 

 end of October less than 400 containing 

 larvae were recorded. This gives one a 

 fair idea of the consequent rapid decrease 

 in the number of mosquitoes in the city. 

 These operations were directed primarily 

 against the yellow-fever mosquito, and 

 incidentally 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 re- 

 sults. 



The same operations were carried on 

 in the villages between Panama and 

 Colon. There are some twenty of these 

 villages, running from 500 to 3,000 in- 

 habitants 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 re- 

 sults can only be judged accurately by 

 comparative methods. It is well known 

 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 cannot 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 be- 

 came sick his employer discharged him, 

 so that he would not have to bear the ex- 

 pense 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 occupa- 

 tion, 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 superintendent 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 24 died 

 of yellow fever. On one vessel 18 young 

 French engineers 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 understood, it was 

 found during the first two years under 

 Doctor Gorgas that, although there were 

 constantly one or more yellow fever cases 

 in the hospital, and although the nurses 

 and physicians were all non-immunes, 

 not a single case of yellow fever was con- ' 

 tracted in that way. The nurses never 

 seemed to consider that they were run- 

 ning any risk in attending yellow-fever 

 cases night and day in screened wards, 

 and the wives and families of officers 

 connected with the hospital lived about 

 the grounds, knowing that yellow fever 

 was constantly being brought into the 

 grounds and treated in near-by buildings. 

 Americans, sick from any cause, had no 

 fear when being treated in beds imme- 

 diately adjoining those of yellow fever 

 patients. 



Colonel Gorgas and Doctor Carter 

 lived in the old ward used by the French 



