Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 187, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1913 — MAKING The ZONE HEALTHFUL by E.W.PICKARD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAKING The ZONE HEALTHFUL by E.W.PICKARD

Ancon, C. Z.—All the world gives to Col. W. C. Gorgas, chief sanitary officer, and his assistants full credit the wonderful work they have accomplished in making the Panama canal zone healthful and keeping it so. All the world that knows gives equal r greater credit to those American, Italian and English doctors and soldiers who sacrificed their health and in some cases their lives to prove that yellow fever and malaria, the two terrors of tropic America, are transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes. It la not my intention to tell over again the latter story. The devotion of those brave men actually made possible the building of the Panama canal, tot their work has been tak»n full advantage of by ColoneL Gorgas and his forces, and the zone is 'now one of the most healthful places In the world.

Before the coming pf the Americans the isthmus was a veritable pest hole. Tbp French canal builders and their workmen and the laborers on the Panama railway died like flies, usually of malaria or yellow fever. Today a fatal case of malaria is a rarity, the more malignant form being almost unknown, and not a single case of yellow fever has originated in the Bone in several years. The Stegomyia mosquito, the yellow fever bearer, has not been, exceedingly hard to exterminate because it breeds and lives only near human habitations. When the Americans had substituted a regular water system and underground sewers for the rain water -barrels and the open ditches in Coloh, Panama and the other towns, and had fumigated all the dwellings, Stegomyia was practically extinct. That job of fumigat-

tog, by the way, raised a great row among the ignorant inhabitants of Panama. They could not understand why they should be all moved out Into the street and their houses filled with evil-smelling fumes, and they were inclined to offer forcible resistance until the zone police took the matter in hand. Much more difficult has been the task of eradicating malaria, for the Inopheline mosquito, wbieh makes a specialty of carrying this disease, is widespread and of several varieties. It is the female only that bites, and she needs blood —preferably red blood—for the development of her eggs. The eggs are deposited in a ilow moving or stationary water and hatch out into little larvae or “wrigglers.” At least once in two minutes the larva must come to the surface to breathe, and that is where the santary department gets St, usually. As one-wanders about the zone he ■ees at the headwaters of every stream, ditch or other water course, »t frequent Intervals along its banks, and at the edge of every pool, a big tin can or a keg. From this receptacle there is a constant drip, drip, drip of larvacide, a black, olly-looking jompound of crude carbolic acid, caustic soda and resin. This spreads out over the water, an iridescent film, 1 and when little Anophellne larva comes up for air he meets a iwfTt death. To replenish these cans of larvacide a small army of Jamalrans is kept traveling about the zone. r.nd others go around with tanks of the compound strapped on their backs, spraying every pool they come to. Another measure of extermination has been tbe.dralning and filling in of •wampy ground and the straightening gnd clearing of water courses so that their flow will be too swift for Madame Anophellne. The work of drainlag and filling has been extensive and bear the Pacific end of the canal has Resulted in the reclamation of large uact* of land for building sites. Tbs third part of the anti-mosquito

campaign is the careful screening of buildings occupied by human beingß. Ordinary mosquito netting would not do and only copper wire will stand the climate there. Consequently a fine meshed copper screening is used. If any Anopnelines escape the larvae cide and succeed in gaining entrance to a habitation, the mosquito-killers are summoned and seldom fail to get them. Nine days must elapse after a mosquito has bitten a malarious person before it oecomes infectious, and this gives ths mosquito brigade plenty of time to kill the insects while they are asleep on the walls. The isolation of infected persons in the hospitals helps a lot, for of course the mosquito cannot carry malaria until it has bitten a malarious person. Rats, that carry the bubonic plague, and flies, that transmit various other diseases, have received adequate attention from the sanitary department, and dumb brutes are not neglected. As an instance of the latter fact, every horse and mule in the zone must be placed at night in ona of a series of corrals established by the department and there it is fed and cared for, the owner paying a reasonable fixed charge for the service. These animals, if left out, often are attacked by a disease that is infectious and may be transmitted to human beings. Besides that, the native cannot be persuaded to keep his stable in sanitary condition.

Many other sanitary regulations are imposed on the people of the isthmus. All garbage must be deposited in receptacles to be collected by the department’s wagons and burned in its crematories. Chickens may not be kept within a certain distance of any dwelling. Rain water may not be gathered and kept in open receptacles. That last rule is not easy to enforce, for the Panamanian prefers rain water for drinking purposes. But all these are for the general good, and the United States has the treaty right to attend to the sanitation of Panama a%d Colon as well as of the zone. In addition to the two great hospitals at Ancon and Colon, the department of sanitation maintains a dispensary with physician and nurse at every town along the route of the canal and at Porto Bello, where the commission has a big stone quarry. The larger hospital, on Ancon hill, close to Panama, in the spring of the year had about 900 patients. Its wards and the residences of tbs physicians and nurses are scattered picturesquely though rather inconveniently on the east and north slopes of the beautiful hill, and the grounds are filled with magnificent trees and lovely flowering vines and bushes. A little further around the hill is the hospital for the insane, and it, too, is well filled, for the Jamaican and Barbadian negroes go crazy at the slightest provocation. ■ In Cblon,. stretching along the seashore in the only pretty part of that flat city, is the other hospital, smaller bht no less efficient and well manned than that at Ancon. Its grounds are swept continually by the refreshing winds from the Atlantic and many of its wards are built out over the water. Both hospitals are served by corps of physicians and surgeons, mostly rather young, but able, ambb tious and studious.

One mighty good thing the French company did was to establish a sanitarium on Taboga island, and the Americans, recognizing its value, promptly reopened it for the benefit of white convalescents. These may remain on the pretty island for two weeks, paying |2 a day for room, board and medical attention.’ Taboga lies twelve miles due south of Panama and is as attractive a tropical isle as one will often see. Its curving white beaches in little bays are ideal bathing places; its lofty hills, clad with dense vegetation, afford occupation for the climber, and the small fishing village of Taboga is ancient and not uninteresting. Gorgeous birds and flowers and luscious fruits are everywhere. Nothing more perfectly beautiful can be imagined than an evening on the grassy slopes of the sanitarium grounds. ‘ A myriad stars glitter overhead, the Southern Cross and Canopus swinging above the southern horizon. In the forest night birds sing and a variety of tree locust sends forth a clear, musical note that can be heard a mile. In the little public square of the village the native women and children are laughing and singing as the men set forth on all-night fishing trips. And off to the north, this side of the glow of Panama, wink the light buoys of the canal’s sea channel. If in later years Taboga does not become a favorite winter resort for wealthy Americans, I shall solas my guess.

COLON HSPITAL

Ancon Hill.