Photo from American Red Cross Bulletin 



the; plague in chixa 



American Red Cross Relief Corps, showing method of protection against infection. 

 The variety of plague during this epidemic was that known as pneumonic, and to guard 

 against infection, both the skin and the air passages, such as the mouth and nostrils, had to 

 be closely covered with antiseptic wrappings. 



allies of suffering, and the result was a 

 death rate of vast proportions. Stretch- 

 ing across the country between the two 

 cities lay a vast expanse of untamed 

 jungle and undrained swamp that was a 

 paradise to the mosquito world. And 

 then the masses of the people were hope- 

 lessly ignorant of all things sanitary and 

 as careless as they were ignorant. 



To add to the unlovely state of affairs, 

 the ships that came in from South and 

 Central America carried diseases with 

 them. And so it was that one might look 

 over the entire tropical world in vain for 

 a place to put the new science to a se- 

 verer test. 



The United States was not willing to 

 undertake the sanitation cf the Canal 

 Zone without including Panama and 

 Colon as a part of the sanitary district, 

 and so it was insisted that Uncle Sam 

 should have perpetual sanitary control 

 over the two major cities of the Isthmian 

 republic, and Panama agreed. 



After the international problems were 

 settled Colonel Gorgas and his aides got 

 busy. They built for Panama and Colon 

 up-to-date sewer and water systems, the 

 cost thereof to be returned to the United 

 States in small annual payments. They 

 cut down 1 6 million square yards of 

 brush a year, drained a million square 

 yards of swamps, cut 30 million square 

 yards of grass, maintained nearly three 

 million feet of ditches, emptied 300,000 

 night-soil cans and a million garbage 

 cans, fumigated 11 million cubic feet of 

 residential space, and did other things in 

 proportion in the Canal Zone and in 

 equal proportion in the two terminal 

 cities. 



THE MOSQUITO IN THE COURT OF APPEAE 



For awhile the rigid methods of the 

 Sanitary Department met with success, 

 and the morbidity and mortality rates 

 both showed a remarkable decline. But 

 then came an epidemic of yellow fever. 



349 



