Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/301

Rh. Sanitary and police authority over these places, however, had wisely been retained by treaty rights. The unsanitary condition of Colon was vigorously attacked. Lakes were drained and filled and oil was used freely where draining was impracticable; a good sewer system was installed and connection required; an adequate supply of pure water was brought from a distance and cisterns abolished; streets were graded and sidewalks built; wharves were constructed, and the tide water controlled; suitable ordinances were passed, order was established and sanitary regulations of every kind were rigidly enforced. A quarantine system was inaugurated that was unyielding and of great value. As soon as possible a modern hospital was built with up-to-date equipment and every possible facility for scientific investigation and the most skilled surgical and medical treatment. This hospital has grown to great dimensions and has few equals in results. The annual death rate of Colon under this method has been reduced from 50 to less than 20 per thousand.

Panama City, not quite so bad as Colon, was treated in a similar manner. Adjoining Panama City is Ancon, the attractive American suburb, where are established the administration buildings, and the great Ancon hospital, which has no superior anywhere, furnishing the employees every facility for recovery that money can buy.

The problems confronted in the intermediate country were somewhat different, but similar in principle. The trains were screened and regulations put in force for the protection of the public health. A number of living stations for employees were arranged along the railroad and every house was built well off the ground and screened. Now the real war against disease was begun, lakes and swamps that had never been drained since nature made them poured out their accumulated filth to the sea; those that could not be drained were oiled; ditches were dug only after the lines of skilled engineers so that drainage might be perfect; a large force of men were kept busy oiling three or four times a month all lakes, puddles, sluggish streams and marshes, 60 that mosquitoes could not breed. Each little station or town was furnished a pure water supply, brought down from the distant hills in some instances, and provided with an efficient system of sewers, or in some rare instances well arranged cesspools. The jungle was cut away some distance from all residences so that the mosquito could find no resting place. Plague-carrying rats and other vermin were destroyed. Disinfectants were freely used, and fumigation resorted to when necessary in handling contagious diseases. Potting vegetable and animal matter, offal and garbage, were burned. The life and habits of the men were carefully regulated. Government dining halls furnished good meals, well cooked, and protected by screens; sleeping quarters were €lean and neatly screened and comfortable; the hours of rest and labor