on © ha?..-’ INSECTS AND DISEASE THE BUILDING OF THE PANAMA CANAL A TRIUMPH OVER INSECT-BORNE DISEASE By far the most serious problem which confronted the United States Government in the attempt to cut a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was that of insect-borne disease.
The Isthmus was first visited by Columbus on his third voyage in 1498. Permanent settlements were established shortly thereafter by Balboa, and the conquest of Peru, about 1530, by Pizarro made the Isthmus a center of unique commercial importance. The size and magnificence of the city of Old Panama, the point from which Pizarro sailed forth, which Drake half a century later reconnoitred from both its land and water sides, and the stronghold, which the buccaneer Morgan captured, sacked, and _ practically destroyed in 1671, has been greatly exaggerated by the earlier chroniclers and by later but no less credulous historians. Yet it is certain that an enormous volume of travel and a vast quantity of gold and silver bullion passed across the Isthmus between Spain and her imperial colonies. The result of this constant influx of non-immunes in a region admirably adapted for the breeding of disease-carrying insects might have been anticipated. The Isthmus became “‘the foremost pest-hole’’ of the earth, “infamous for its fevers, and interesting only because of the variety of its malarial disorders and pestilences.”’ The failure of the attempt made by the French under de Lesseps to build an Isthmian Canal ‘ 1880-1888) was due to various causes but most of all, perhaps, to the ravages of insect-borne disease. Nothing was then known of the relation of mosquitoes to the transmission of malaria and yellow fever. The hospitals on the Isthmus were unscreened, and potted plants stood all about with water in their saucers, furnishing an ideal breeding-place for Aédes mosquitoes. Even the legs of the beds were stood in cups of water to prevent ants from climbing them. It is no wonder that, as General Gorgas estimates, the French lost about one-third of their white working force each year from yellow fever alone.
When the United States undertook the work, the epoch-making discoveries of Reed and his associates had been established, and General Gorgas, fresh from his successful handling of the sanitation of Havana. was detailed as sanitary adviser to the Isthmian Canal Commission in 1904. It is difficult to believe to-day that the members 69
_ AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS of the Commission were at first quite unconvinced by the Havana investigations and the practical application of their conclusions. As the non-immune population on the Isthmus increased, yellow fever became epidemic. In April, 1905, several of the higher officials were stricken, and panic and demoralization threatened. In June, 1905, the Governor and Chief Engineer of the Commission reeommended that General Gorgas and other adherents of the “‘mosquito theory” should be recalled and ““men with more practical views’’ appointed in their places. President Roosevelt, however, supported the sanitary officers with his accustomed vigor, and Mr. John F. Stevens, who was appointed in place of the former Chief Engineer, was in cordial sympathy with General Gorgas’ plans. The work now moved forward rapidly. Mosquito breeding was reduced to a minimum by clearing away brush and undergrowth, by draining low lands, and by the use of larvicides. Houses were screened, and in particular malaria and yellow fever patients were rigorously isolated from the access of mosquitoes. Quinine was provided, and its systematic use as a prophylactic was persistently urged upon the working force. The results of this sanitary work were as strikingly dramatic as those obtained at Havana. In 1904 and 1905 there were 35 deaths of employees from yellow fever on the Isthmus, but by the end of the latter year the situation was under control. In May, 1906, there was one case at Colon and there has not been a single case on the Isthmus since that date.
The deaths from malaria have been reduced from 233 in 1906 to 3 in 1916 with a larger working force, and the table of case rates below quoted from Hoffman’s monograph is eloquent of the results achieved.
CONQUEST OF MOSQUITO BORNE DISEASE IN PANAMA DEATH RATE FROM YELLOW FEVER PER 10000 EMPLOYEES 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 (SII 19l2 ISIS I9i4 DEATH RATE FROM MALARIA PER 10000 EMPLOYEES
AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS HOSPITAL CASES OF MALARIA AMONG CANAL ZONE EMPLOYEES per 100 employed Year Case-rate Year Case-rate 1906 81.9 192 ERE 1907 42.6 1913 7.6 1908 28.2 1914 6.5 1909 21.6 1915 4.5 1910 18.7 1916 1.5 191] 18.4 General Gorgas estimates that, if our force of 39,000 men had suffered as the French suffered from disease, there would have been 78,000 deaths during the ten years’ work on the construction of the Canal. There were actually 6,630 deaths, indicating a saving due to efficient modern sanitation of over 70,000 lives.
The late Charles Francis Adams said of this episode, in an Address before the Massachusetts Historical Society (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for May, 1911), ‘‘the great and most startling impression left on me by what I saw on my visit to the Zone was not the magnificent ditch itself, nor the engineering feats accomplished; nor yet the construction work in progress. These are remarkable; but solely, so far as | am competent to judge, because of their magnitude and concentratedness. I have frequently seen steam shovels at work; though never so many, nor quite so busily, as now in the Culebra Cut. So I have watched pneumatic drills as they bored into the rock, and heard the detonation of the dynamite; though at Panama more drills would be working at once and in closer proximity than I ever saw before, and the blasts when the day’s work was done sounded like a discharge of artillery in battle. For centuries all civilized nations have been building canals and dams, though the Gatun Dam breaks the record for bigness; the locks, too, at Panama are larger and longer, and more elaborate and imposing than any yet designed. All this is true; and yet it failed deeply to impress me. After all, it was a mere question of bigness—the something more or something less; and, as a result of organized energy and systematic cooperation of forces for rapid daily accomplishment, I still think the construction of the Pacific railroads fifty years ago at the rate of half adozen miles a day, every material, even water, having to be hauled to the moving camp which constituted the advancing front,— 72
INSECTS AND DISEASE this was by far a more dramatic display than anything now to be seen on the Isthmus. Again, the Gatun Dam is a great conception; but as such the recent tunneling of the Hudson and the subterranean honeycombing of Manhattan Island, combined with the bridging of the East River, impress me more. Finally, the locks at the entrance and outlet of the proposed Chagres Lake are imposing structures; but to my mind the terminal stations built, or now in process of building, in the heart of New York City, are more imposing. As I have said, all this is a mere question of degree, and time out of mind the world has been building roads and water-ways; moreover, behind this particular water-way is the Treasury of the United States. But when it comes to the sanitation which made all that is now going on at Panama humanly and humanely possible,—vanquishing pestilence and, while harnessing the Chagres, also making it innocuous to those working and dwelling on its banks,—this is new; and the like of it the world had not before seen.”’
Lutz, Frank Eugene and Winslow, C.-E. A. 1918. "Insects and disease : a statement of the more important facts with special reference to everyday experience." Guide leaflet 48, Page 1–73. View This Item Online: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/136269 Permalink: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/partpdf/363554 Holding Institution American Museum of Natural History Library Sponsored by IMLS / LSTA / METRO Copyright & Reuse Copyright Status: Public domain. The BHL considers that this work is no longer under copyright protection.
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