7 
THE SANITARY CONDITIONS 
AND DISEASES PREVAILING IN 
MANAOS, NORTH BRAZIL, 1905-1909, 
WITH PLAN OF MANAOS AND CHART 
BY 
H. WOLFERSTAN THOMAS, M.D., C.M. (McGill), 
Expedition to the Amazon , 1905-1909 
( Fifteenth Expedition of the Liverpool School of Tropical 
Medicine.) 
Manaos, the capital of the State of Amazonas, was selected as the 
headquarters of the Expedition. It is the second largest city in the 
Amazon district and is one of the most important cities in North 
Brazil. 
The city is situated on the Rio Negro, a few miles above its 
confluence with the River Amazon, and lies in latitude 3° 08' 30" and 
longitude 59 0 59' 27" west of Greenwich; its height above the sea 
level is only about 3^40 metres. It is 900 miles’ river journey from 
the city of Para at the mouth of the Amazon river and 1,300 miles 
from the town of Iquitos, Peru. The traffic is entirely carried on by 
ocean and river steamers of up to 6,000 tons, plying between 
Hamburg, Liverpool, New York and Manaos. 
The population of Manaos is about 6o,oco, comprising some 33,000 
intra-urban and 28,000 extra-urban inhabitants. The greater number 
are Amazonenses (persons born in the Amazon State), but many 
Brazilians from other States, especially Cearenses, have settled in 
the city. There are about 4,000 to 5,000 foreigners, chiefly Portu¬ 
guese, Italians and Spaniards, with some hundreds of Americans, 
English, French, Germans, Syrians and Turks. 
