AlGlST 7, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



185 



monument descends solid into the volcano 

 would be interesting were there any way of 

 reaching the problem, but for the present 

 there would seem to be none such. 



On June 13 last, in company with M. Guin- 

 oiseau — one of the observers of the French 

 Commission — I made the ascent of Pelee, and 

 from the immediate crater-rim took a series 

 of photographs of Pelee's singular process, 

 probably the most impressive piece of nature 

 that I had ever seen. The volcano, by com- 

 parison with what it had been before, had 

 ' slumbered down to peace,' but yet it was too 

 active to permit us to descend into the cra- 

 teral-hollow, 300 to 350 feet in depth, that 

 still surrounded the new cone. Steam- and 

 sulphur-puffs were issuing everywhere, and 

 avalanches of rock were repeatedly being dis- 

 engaged from the obelisk. Pelee was still 

 ' ngly,' and the night before, the southwest 

 base of its crown or plug was glowing with 

 fire — with the liquid lava that was rising in 

 rift-passages. Two days later I noted a 

 feeble line of steam issuing from the absolute 

 apex of the summit, suggesting a continuous 

 passage or channel extending from base to 

 summit. On March 26 a discharge of in- 

 candescent balls was observed also to take 

 place from the same position. 



Geologists will naturally make a comparison 

 between the Pelee structure and that which 

 was observed to rise in Georgios, in Santorin, 

 in 1867; but the dome of the latter is probably 

 nearer to the cone of Pelee, and suggests little 

 of the obelisk and of its method of formation. 

 And, perhaps, not much more can be said in 

 any comparison that might be made with the 

 ' pyramidated ' summits of some of the equa- 

 torial volcanoes of South America, whose 

 contours have been given to us by Professor 

 Stiibel. Angelo IIeilprin. 



Geographical Society of PHiLADEi.pni.\, 

 July 18, 1903. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOCIY. 



HEALTH ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



In a recent number of the Monthly Weather 

 Review (Vol. XXXI., No. 3) General Henry 

 L. Abbot, who has for some years made a 



special study of the climatological conditions 

 of the Isthmus of Panama, publishes a sum- 

 mary of the climate and health of that dis- 

 trict which will prove of general interest at the 

 present time. General Abbot has previously 

 written several discussions of this subject, 

 some notes on which have appeared in these 

 columns. Probably what General Abbot has to 

 say about health on the Isthmus will have the 

 greatest interest just now. Regarding the 

 earlier health statistics, during the construc- 

 tion of the Panama Railroad, it is stated that 

 they ' are well known to have been appalling.' 

 But, as is pointed out, " at that date it was 

 not understood that natives of the temperate 

 regions can not safely perform arduo\is man- 

 ual labor under exposure to a tropical sun, 

 and that dependence for such work must be 

 placed upon the negroes of the West Indies. 

 White men can supervise, but must not at- 

 tempt more." The table of ' Official Health 

 Statistics ' of the Panama Canal, published 

 in the article, may be briefly summarized as 

 follows : 



Old Company, 1881-18S8, percentage of mor- 

 tality from disease (European and tropical), 5.97. 



Receiver, 1889-1894, percentage of mortality 

 from disease (European and tropical), 2.88. 



New Company, 1895-1901, percentage of mor- 

 tality from disease (European and tropical), 2.61. 



The marked improvement shown in recent 

 years is attributed by Dr. Lavoisade, the 

 medical director of the company hospital near 

 Panama, to the better accommodations of the 

 laborers, better drainage, and especially to the 

 fact that the excavations have reached a level 

 below the poisonous emanations of decaying 

 organic matter. For the years 1898-1901 the 

 percentage of mortality from disease was 

 ■2.:M), which is said not to exceed that on 

 large works in any country. The men herein 

 concerned had, however, been long on the 

 Isthmus. As to yellow fever, the disease most 

 to be feared by unacclimated persons of the 

 white race, during two recent epidemics (in 

 1899 and 1900), only two cases appeared 

 among the personnel of the company. Dr. 

 Lavoisade believes that yellow fever ' is in no 

 wise necessarily endemic' on the Isthmus. 



