THE CUBA REVIEW 



$3,500; Sr. Zendeguy, Cuban charge d'af- 

 fairs in London, $1,500, and $500 will be 

 left over for any extra expense. 



They will carry with them to England 

 six thousand of "the finest cigars that can 

 be manufactured anywhere in the world, 

 to be presented to King George with the 

 compliments of the Cuban people. 



Trachoma, the dreaded eye 

 Many disease, is securing a foot- 



Trachoma hold in Havana. ]^Iany 

 Cases Cubans and several resi- 



dent Americans are suffer- 

 ing with it. says the Havana Post, and that 

 the authorities are apprehensive and taking 

 every precaution to prevent its spread. 



An inspection service has been inaugu- 

 rated in Santiago and another will be 

 opened at Antilla, Cuban ports through 

 which immigrants enter, and it is believed 

 the disease has entered through these 

 ports. 



The last epidemic in Cuba of trachoma 

 occured previous to and during the first 

 intervention. It was caused by the recon- 

 centration policy of General \Veyler, when 

 Cubans were herded in towns and cities 

 without proper sanitary arrangements. 



Dr. Frank ]Menocal, chief of the immi- 

 gration service, states that 90 per cent of 

 the blind patients in asjdums are victims 

 of trachoma. Granualtions under the up- 

 per lid, first soft, harden and act as emery 

 paper, scratching the eyeball until the sight 

 is destroyed. 



If suppuration sets in the ej'eball is 

 destroyed. Seventj'-five per cent, of un- 

 treated cases result in blindness. Unless 

 treatment commences in the very early 

 stages, it is said trachoma is never cured. 



It attacks the old and the young. Child- 

 ren are more prone to it as they do not 

 have habits of cleanliness acquired in later 

 years. It may develop quickly or it may 

 take years. 



On May 24th, the Cuban 

 Must Pay Treasury Department de- 

 Full Tax cided to set aside the ap- 

 plication for a refund made 

 by the San Manuel Sugar Company on 

 extra port duties paid on machinery im- 

 ported to improve the mill. 



The Port Improvement Act went into 

 effect on February 21st. and the San fla- 

 nnel Sugar Company received machinery 

 to enlarge the mill but a few weeks ago, 

 but alleging that this machinery was con- 

 tracted for in New York on January 19, 

 1911, held it should be exempt from the 

 extra tax imposed by the new port law. 



The Treasury Department in its decision 

 holds that duties are payable on the day 

 the merchandise is declared for impor- 

 tation, and for that reason the date of the 

 order is not to be considered. 



Dr. Manuel Secades, gov- 



To ernment consulting attor- 



Inspect ney of Cuba, arrived a few 



Prisons weeks since in the United 



States to inspect again the 



prisons. The information gained is to be 



used in planning the $3,000,000 penitentiary 



soon to be erected in Havana. He also 



hopes to establish with the authorities of 



Xew York State reciprocity of the Bertil- 



lon measurements. 



Especially is Cuba anxious, it is stated, 

 to do away with the garrote and substitute 

 the electric chair. 



According to Dr. Secades, a number or 

 identification mark is tattooed upon the 

 bodies of convicts sentenced to long terms, 

 a procedure which, the doctor thinks, might 

 be imitated with good effect in institutions 

 elsewhere. 



Plans by W. A. Wilson, an 

 To American engineer, to 



Drain drain the lakes to the 



Santiago southwest of the city in 

 order to permit the widen- 

 ing of the city area and to best protect the 

 health of the inhabitants are now under 

 discussion. 



The work includes the drainage of the 

 Grande, Maria Juana, Cabrera. Dulce 

 Xombre, Salamanca, ^ladre Vieja, Cab- 

 rera, Santa Ursula and San Juan lakes, 

 which have a total area of about three 

 square miles. Besides the work on these 

 lakes the plan includes the drainage of 

 the low marshy surfaces which are abun- 

 dant in the neighborhood and which prac- 

 tically reach the city's limits. 



Xearly one thousand acres will be re- 

 covered if the work is authorized. Pro- 

 vincial Governor Manduley has sent a 

 message to the council favoring the work 

 which will cost $24,500. 



The Board of Health of 

 Sanitary Havana has given orders 

 Milk that receptacles of glass, 



Cans with sanitary pasteboard 



tops, or vessels of enam- 

 elled ware with hygienic stoppers, are to 

 be substituted in place of the cans now 

 used of tin, zinc and other materials, 

 headed up with bunches of grass and 

 straw. 



Three months' grace is allowed for the 

 milk dealers to conform to the new regu- 

 lations. In order that the small dealers 

 who bring in milk from the country may 

 suffer no hardship in making the change, 

 an extra term of ninety days is added in 

 their case. 



Fifteen hundred laborers employed by 

 the Cuban Engineering Construction Com- 

 pany on the new sewer system in Havana 

 struck June 15th for an increase in wages. 



