CO885-(20-21) — Page 656

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PLC.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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is an old whitewashed brick or stone building and is in a poor condition,

At present it houses 100 patients.

All leprous patients who cannot be isolated or looked after in their own homes to the satisfaction of the Health Officer are compelled to go to the hospital.

Yellow Fever-There is no yellow fever now in Cuba. The last outbreak, which resulted in several cases being notified, was traced to an infected person arriving from New Orleans.

Typhoid Fever is present in the town, cases arising occasionally.

101. Laboratory.-At the Las Animas Hospital is a laboratory, where can be seen the original jar and mosquito netting used in the early yellow fever inoculation experiments with mosquitoes.

Here are kept a regular supply of mosquitoes and also Pulez cheopis. The pulices are in an open glass jar, about 9 inches to 10 inches deep and 6 inches in diameter, which has some sand in the bottom. mouse in occasionally.

They are fed by putting a chloroformed and the fleas leave it or get to the end of the

After feeding, the mouse tail, from which they are easily shaken.

The various serums required are made here.

is

Outside the town is a station where is prepared the calf lymph used for vaccination. This is used for all vaccinations at home and a good deal is also exported.

102. Fever Patients.-All Europeans of the less wealthy class are members of the various club hospitals, and as treatment is free to them they seek advice at once if ill. These comprise the large majority of the "non-immunes" to yellow fever, and thus any case of " fever" occurring among them is seen practically at once.

All patients with fever from whatever cause are placed, on almission to hospital, in a mosquito-proof room or ward. These wards are visited daily by the Health Officer of the Town. Ifa case, after inspection, arouses no suspicion of yellow fever it is removed to a general ward, but should it do so it is immediately isolated in another mosquito-proof room. The Commission (consisting of the most experienced men in the town, and specially appointed for this purpose) is then summoned, visits the patient, and a definite diagnosis is made.

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The town

103. Inspection and Anti-Mosquito Work. itself is divided into sections, each of which is thoroughly- gone through once a month; some parts, however, are visited much more frequently, according to requirements.

There are oiling parties which go out destroying all mosquito-breeding places and oiling pools, &c., &c.

In some of the low-lying swampy parts drains are cut, the edges of which are carefully looked after and kept clean and clear of vegetation, and the surface of the water is kept oiled. As a result of the careful work done, hardly any mosquitoes are seen in the town. Very many persons never use a mosquito net, and there is very little malaria.

104. Dr. Guiteras. As a result of many experiments, Dr. Guiteras considers that 16-mesh mosquito gauze will keep out all mosquitoes, and he always uses that made of copper wire. In reference to the transmission of the yellow fever germ through the ova of the mosquito, he expressed strong doubts as to its occurrence.

Panama Canal Zone.

105. The Canal Zone is about 45 miles long and is divided for sanitary work into three divisions and 18 sections.

A white sanitary inspector is in charge of each section, a divisional inspector of each division, and a chief sanitary officer is in charge of the whole under the direction of Colonel Gorgas.

Each sanitary inspector, who is supplied with a type- writing machine, sends in, among others, a weekly report showing the number of men employed on his section, number of cases of malarial fever per 1,000, number of mosquitoes caught, &c. These reports are compared, a list is made with the section with the smallest malaria rate at the head. Competition is thus aroused among the inspectors, each one desiring to see his section heading the list.

Stations have been made at various places along the line of Canal where the work rendered it necessary that people should live, and round the more important and permanent of these towns have sprung up of considerable size.

106. Statistics.When the death rate and other statistics of the earlier years of construction are compared with those of to-day, it will at once be seen what an enormous change has been brought about, and when, in addition, it is con- sidered that the scourge of yellow fever has been completely