94 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



of Mr. Le Prince, who had been chief of his " mosquito brigades" 

 in Habana, and therefore was perfectly familiar with antimosquito 

 methods. In Panama, as in Habana, the population 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 dis- 

 tricts 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 mosquitoes. All the cisterns, water barrels, and 

 other water receptacles in Panama were covered as in Habana, 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 which was done in Habana, 

 with exceptionally good results. 



The same operations were carried on in the villages between 

 Panama and Colon. There are some twenty of these villages, run- 

 ning from 500 to 3,000 inhabitants 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 results can only be judged accu- 

 rately 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 can not 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 became sick his employer discharged him, so that he would 

 not have to bear the expense 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 construction, is in- 

 clined 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 endeavoring 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 



