( i°4 ) 
responsible for conditions within its borders or dependencies, tending to 
propagate epidemic diseases and to threaten other nations with which it expects 
to maintain a friendly commerce.” With these views the International Sanitary 
Conventions were established, as stated in the preceding chapter, and further 
progress was made towards the advancement of international sanitation of sea- 
ports with the view of the eradication of Yellow fever and the lessening or 
abolition of quarantine restrictions. 
The sanitary policy of the United States is bearing fruit. I he Costa 
Rican Government asked for a Marine Service Officer to supervise the sanita- 
tion of Port Limon, which was at the time very bad. Active co-operation is 
taking place in Mexico between the Mexican and Marine Hospital Service medical 
officers. The Canal zone in Panama is under the strict supervision of a corps 
of medical officers, drawn from the War and Marine Hospital Service depart- 
ments. In Livingston and Puerto Cortes the two representatives of the 
Marine Hospital Service, whom I met, had been freely used by the local adminis- 
trations to direct prophylactic measures, and they had taken the leading part in 
seeking out the cases, fumigating, oiling, screening, &c. Experience, however, 
shows that with the cessation of the epidemic, the local Administration proceeds 
no further, and however active the United States medical representatives may 
have been they find themselves without authority to bring about permanent 
improvement. The question arises, therefore : Are the present Governments 
of certain of the Central American Republics sufficiently alive to the international 
obligation placed upon them of putting their trading ports in order, or have they 
got the necessary skilled machinery for carrying out sanitary reforms ? The present 
state of affairs is unsatisfactory, but we may hope that, as the result of the encourag- 
ing examples of the good resulting from wise anti- Yellow fever measures, the 
Republics concerned will do all they can to co-operate in cleaning the seaports. 
Definite action is necessary, for the fruit ports are not protected at the 
present time, and are liable throughout the year to Yellow fever, as the Stegomyia 
fasciata is always present. 
New Orleans, which has hitherto been in a most unsatisfactory and 
dangerous condition, has, as the result of this year’s lesson, been thoroughly 
screened ; the United States will expect similar action on the part of other 
towns with which trade or commerce is to be encouraged. 
With regard to the Medical Marine Service and British Honduras use is 
freely made of the official weekly bulletins, and our Consuls in the fruit ports 
of the Republics frequently consult with the Marine medical officers as to the 
condition of health of their port and the bill of health which they will issue to 
vessels bound for British ports. That this should be so is obvious in the 
present state of sanitary organisation in some of the Republics. It is the 
business of the United States medical representative to ascertain as much as 
possible about the health condition in the port in which he is stationed. He 
finds out from the local medical men the prevalence of sickness, he scrutinises 
the death returns, and he visits neighbouring towns on the rumour of suspicious 
cases. 
I consider that it would be a great international gain if Britsh Honduras 
were now to co-operate with the United States, with Mexico, and with the other 
American Republics, in the eradication of Yellow fever. 
