CO885-(20-21) — Page 647

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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store-room and refrigerator is attached but is a few yards from the main building.

There is a hospital for plague, with two rooms, and another for yellow fever patients, with four rooms, each with necessary conveniences. These buildings are away from the rest and are on stone pillars between which the sea washes. There is an office and laboratory, and quarters for medical officer and attendants.

sewage

top

Water Supply.—Salt water is used for fire and purposes. This is pumped into a cement reservoir on the of the neighbouring island. It supplies fire plugs, which are in all the buildings and also in the grounds, and all the sanitary arrangements.

Fresh water is collected from roofs in circular tanks, 20 feet diameter and 20 feet high, in the wet season, but all the other supplies have at present to be brought from Panama.

The pumping machinery consists of two steam pumps. Two are provided for fear of one breaking down, and one is kept working 2-3 days a week.

Ships coming up the coast, e.g., from Guayaquil, are inspected by an American representative at that place, and fumigated before sailing, so that the quarantine period starts from there.

The baggage of cabin passengers from a ship arriving from a yellow-fever port is not fumigated, but that of steerage passengers is so treated, in order to destroy any living organism there be.

may Grain, hides, &c., are forbidden altogether.

Leper Asylum, Punama.

39. This institution is situated about three miles from Panama; it has to be reached by boat from that place, and is on the slope of a hill close to the sea shore.

A white superintendent is in charge and the place is visited by a medical officer once weekly.

It consists of a number of small buildings of the bungalow pattern, raised off the ground, with a verandah all round. Each building has two, three, or four rooms which are pro vided with one, two, or three proper bedsteads and bedding. Water is laid on and suitable bath, lavatory, and washing accommodation arranged for in every house.

The buildings are not mosquito-proof but cases of malarial fever are rare.

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Water Supply-The water supply is obtained from a well in the grounds from which water is pumped, by means of a steam pump, into a cement reservoir which is at sufficient elevation to provide the necessary pressure. The sewage goes into the sea.

There is a small chapel in the centre of the grounds which is also used as a school for three or four children.

The general washing is done on the premises, but all the articles are steeped in perchloride of mercury solution before being laundried, which method shortens their period of use. fulness very considerably.

dispensary.

Medicines and dressings are kept in a Segregation of patients suffering from the disease is com- pulsory, both in the Canal Zone and in the Republic.

The patients have small gardens, grow corn and flowers, fish, keep fowls, &c., barter among themselves, and the Super- intendent buys eggs from them for use in the institution.

The inmates, comprising people of many races and colours, are at present forty in number, and expenses are met by an Appropriation Fund from the Canal Votes.

per

The cost of food and attendance works out at $1 a head diem ; the clothing, however, which is provided is extra.

Habana.-Las Animas Hospital.

40. This is an infectious diseases hospital and is situated on the top of a hill near the outskirts of the town where the stegomyia has never been found.

The main building, consisting of numerous small wards, is on one floor, and was originally and old mansion. It has been made thoroughly mosquito-proof with 16-mesh copper gauze, which Dr. Guiteras considers small enough to mosquito.

keep out

any

The wards, containing 3-6 beds each, are on both sides of a long corridor, and in the newer part are arranged alternately on cach ́side.

Occasionally, when advisable, a whole family is taken into hospital, although only one may be suffering from the disease, and in many cases a mother comes with her child. Nursing is done by white nurses.

There is a laboratory, in a building by itself, in connection with the hospital, and this is where the early yellow fever experiments were made, and where the original jar and mosquito netting used in those experiments are still kept.