460 The National Geographic Magazine 



disease has been a source of pride. No 

 brighter page in the history of sanitary 

 science can be found than that which 

 pertains to the medical records of the 

 navy during the summer of 1898. To 

 prove this let me quote from the report 

 of the Surgeon General of the Navy 

 dated October 1, 1899 : 



' ' In the returns from the squadron 

 operating in Cuban waters are repre- 

 sented 48 vessels, with an average com- 

 plement of 11,599. As showing the 

 effects of war service upon the crews of 

 the various types of ships, the monitors 

 gave an average rate per 1,000 of force 

 sick daily during the war of 17.48 ; for 

 1897, 10.87 > battleships, 12.34, against 

 12.38 in 1897 > cruisers, 16.01 , as against 

 17.31 for 1897; gunboats, 15.74, as 

 against 20.14 for 1897." 



THE HKAI/TH OF OUR. SQUADRONS IN 

 TIME OF PEACE AND WAR 



So that for this squadron, in spite of 

 diseases especially incident to the tropics 

 in midsummer, the daily average sick- 

 ness for the whole force of nearly 12,000 

 men was but 1.56 per cent. 



Thus it will be seen that, leaving out 

 the monitors, the average sickness dur- 

 ing the war of 1898 was less in reality 

 than in the peace year 1897, when our 

 squadrons summered at some of the 

 health resorts along our Atlantic coast; 

 but, even including the monitors, the 

 general average of sickness is less for 

 the war period than that for the "try- 

 ing times of peace." Sailors have a 

 trite saying that ' ' those who go down 

 to the sea in ships see the wonders of 

 the deep, but those who go in monitors 

 see the infernal regions. ' ' This record 

 of comparative sickness for the monitors 

 would seem to lend credence to this 

 statement. 



A slightly better result than this was 

 obtained from Admiral Dewey's squad- 

 ron in the Philippines during the same 

 period. 



It may be remembered also that the 

 Navy Department sent a battalion of 



marines to Cuba during the war period,, 

 the average strength of which was 588. 

 On June 10 a landing was made at 

 Guantanamo, where the battalion was in 

 camp for the remainder of the war and 

 until some time after the main force 

 of the army had left for home. The 

 daily average of this force sick was but 

 2.23 per cent. Remember, this was 

 shore service, the same as in the army. 

 The Surgeon General ' s report continues : 

 ' ' There were six deaths, all of which 

 occurred in the engagements with the 

 Spanish troops, not a single fatal case oc- 

 curri?ig from disease.''' If there is any 

 town in the United States with an equal 

 number of inhabitants that had less- 

 sickness for the same period, I would 

 like to see the statistics. Let this state- 

 ment be compared with Japanese records 

 and the disparagement will not appear 

 so great as that given by the learned 

 doctor. 



With the sanitary corps on the Isth- 

 mus in charge of such men as Col. Wil- 

 liam C. Gorgas, U. S. A., chief sanitary 

 officer, whose record as a destroyer of 

 yellow-fever germs in Cuba recently 

 has given him fame, assisted until re- 

 cently by Medical Director John W. 

 Ross, U. S. N. , director of hospitals, and 

 other officers of the army and navy, we 

 need not fear the result of any com- 

 parisons made under like conditions 

 with any people on the globe. Dr Ross 

 has been connected with various im- 

 portant sanitary enterprises during his 

 long and useful career in the navy. As 

 long ago as 1 878-1 879 he made an en- 

 viable record as a volunteer in the yel- 

 low-fever epidemic of east Florida, for 

 which he was promoted by special act 

 of Congress in 1888. 



THE PANAMA PURCHASE A GREAT 

 BARGAIN 



That the government of the United 

 States has secured a great bargain in the 

 purchase of the assets of the Panama 

 Canal Company is beyond question. 

 When de Lesseps undertook the man- 



