PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
22
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- [ COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TQ
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON.
Steamship Lines.
Hamburg-American
Leyland and Harrison
Motor Boat and Coasting
Services,
Frequency.
1 every fortnight
1 per week.
1 per month
+
Frequently
90
Port of call in yellow fever zone.
Santiago de Cuba vid Kingston,
Port Limon in Costa Rica.
Belize in British Honduras.
(Liverpool).
Bocas del Toro.
Porto Bello (10 miles from Colon).
The ships of various trans-Atlantic lines which run between European ports (Cadiz, Genoa, Bordeaux, and Marseilles) and Colon, such as the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, the Navigazione General Italiana, and the Trans-Atlantica Espanola, also sometimes call at other ports in the endemic area; but the ships of the Panama Railroad Company ply directly between New York and Colon, the journey occupying only 6 days.
By the direct steamers the journey between-
Bocas del Toro and Colon occupies 12 hours. Port Limon
"J
"
21
Santa Marta
13
J
14 36
"
33
Kingston
22
"
44
"
D
Barrios
"+
21
New Orleans
""
"
60 136
"
+
"
2. AT PANAMA.
Steamship Lines,
Frequency.
Pacific Mail Steamship
Company.
3 per month
Pacific Steam Navigation
Company.
Pacific Steam Navigation
Company.
Cia. Sud-Americanade
Vapores.
Peruvian Line
Ports of call in yellow fever zone.
Coasting trade between Panama and San Francisco, calling at Punta Arenas in Costa Rica, San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, Corinto in Nicaragua, Amapala and La Union in Honduras, La Libertad, Acajutta, San Jose de Guatemala, Champerico and Ocos in Guatemala, Salina Cruz, Acapulco, Man- zanillo, San Blas, Mazatlan in Mexico.
I every 10 days Guayaquil direct. I every fortnight:
Abont 1 each per
week.
The National Steamship Frequently
Line.
A
Guayaquil via intermediate Colombian porta,
Panama to Payta in Peru, thence calling at inter- mediate ports to Callao, Mollendo, Antofagasta, and Valparaiso.
Local coasting traffic on the Pacific side of the
Republic of Panama.
By the direct steamers the journey between Panama and Guayaquil occupies only 3 days, and between Panama and Payta 5 days.
Quarantine arrangements. The regulations of maritime quarantine for the ports of Colon and Panama are given in an appendix,* and here it is necessary to note only a few details of interest and importance.
The scheme by which the United States seeks to prevent the introduction of yellow fever into its ports includes arrangements not only at the local ports of arrival of ships, but at the distant infected or suspected ports from which the ships have come.
The latter part of the scheme has been rendered possible by inter- national agreement, and is a most important link in the chain of defence. In its complete form it necessitates the placing of a United States medical officer in each port that is suspected to be dangerous. He is attached to the United States Consulate of the port, and some of his duties are: to furnish trustworthy information concerning the sanitary and health conditions of the port and district, to telegraph information of the outbreak and progress of quarantinable diseases, to examine all passengers and crew of vessels leaving the port for ports belonging to the United States, to supply health certificates and certificates of immunity and of vaccination to certain passengers, to inspect all ships prior to their departure and, if necessary, to fumigate them before they leave, to issue, in co-operation with the American Consul, bills of health to ships, and generally to endeavour to ensure that no ship or passenger.shall proceed from the port in a condition liable to carry infection
• Not forwarded.
91
to an American port. The reports of these officers are of great value in deciding whether quarantine shall be established against a port and what measures shall be taken with regard to the ships and passengers arriving from it; and the action and supervision exercised by those officers sometimes enables trade with infected ports to be carried on without the delays to shipping that would be necessary in the ordinary course. This is illustrated in the following account of the procedure adopted in connection with the ship on which I returned to Panama from Guayaquil, which is a yellow fever and plague-infected port 34 days' journey from the Canal zone. The vessel in which I travelled trades directly to and fro between those ports, and it complies with the following rules: (1) it carries a doctor; (2) it is fitted with a Clayton fumigating apparatus; (3) it does not proceed to the wharves at Guayaquil but anchors in mid-stream about two miles down the river at a place where there is no risk that infected stegomyia mosquitoes will fly on board; (4) no member of the ship's crew is allowed to go on shore at Guayaquil.
The passengers who intended proceeding from Guayaquil on the ship were required, before going on board, to visit the medical officer of the United States Marine Hospital Service who is stationed at Guayaquil. It is his duty to ensure as far as possible that no passenger proceeds on board who is suffering, or is likely during the journey to suffer, from fever suspicious of yellow fever, plague or other infectious disease. To every passenger "passed" by him a certificate to that effect was given. For purposes of plague prevention the baggage of passengers was disinfected before being taken on board. On the day of departure the ship was visited by the United States medical officer and the sanitary staff of the port, and after the captain had certified that none of the officers or crew had been on shore at Guayaquil the passengers, officers, and crew were carefully examined. The holds of the ship and the cook's galley and pantries and the quarters of the crew were then sealed and fumigated, the Clayton apparatus with which the ship was fitted being used for the holds, and sulphur pots for the galley and pantries. The bill of health which had been made out and signed by the Consul was then completed and endorsed by the United States medical officer, and the ship was free to proceed. We arrived off Panama on the evening of the fourth day after leaving Guayaquil and anchored in the appointed station off Quarantine Island. Soon after daylight the ship was visited by the quarantine officers, who obtained from the captain the bill of health and ascertained that there had been no case of suspicious illness during the voyage. The whole ship's company was then paraded and examined thoroughly, the temperature of each person being taken. The same procedure was then carried out with regard to the passengers, their certificates being collected and the temperature of each person being taken.
The passengers were then taken off the ship and placed in quarantine to complete a period of seven days* from the day of going on board at Guayaquil, but the ship and the ship's company (none of whom had gone on shore at Guayaquil) were granted pratique and allowed to proceed to the wharves at Panama.
I was informed that if a case of yellow fever had occurred during the voyage the quarantine officers would have ascertained where it had been contracted: if it had been contracted on shore at Guayaquil the patient would have been isolated in the quarantine station, the ship would have been thoroughly fumigated to destroy any mosquitoes that might possibly be on board, and then would have been allowed to proceed with its officers and crew as though it had arrived with a clean record;t if the case had been contracted on the ship a thorough fumigation would be carried out and then the ship and its entire personnel would have been detained in quarantine for six days subsequent to the fumigation.
The staff for the quarantine arrangements at Colon, Panama, and Bocas del Toro consisted at the time of my visit of a chief quarantine officer, three quarantine officers, an assistant quarantine officer, and 35 employees. The duty of examining immigrants is also carried out by these officers.
At Panama the quarantine station is on one of the islands in the Bay; at Colon it is at some distance from the city. In both stations there are separate buildings
If only yellow fever had been in question the period would have been 6 days; but Guayaquil was also infected with plague.
Instances of this kind occasionally happen. The procedure is based on the view that the ship left Guayaquil without any infected mosquitoes on board, but that possibly there might be some previously uninfected mosquitoes on board. The crew are allowed to proceed because the previously uninfected mosquitoes, even if they had bitten the yellow fever patient during the voyage, would not be infective until 12 days had elapsed, and the journey to Panama (where they would be killed by fumigation) takes only 4 days.