Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . riends divided the Isthmus into twohostile camps. Rivalry of this sortwas unfortunate and needless. Inthe words of Admiral Schley after thebattle of Santiago: There was gloryenough for all. But the result wasto decry and to depreciate the workof Col. Gorgas in making the Isthmushabitable. As a matter of fact nohistorian will for one moment hesi-tate to state that only by that workwas it made possible to dig the Canalat all. Col. Goethals himself in hismoments of deepest doubt as to thesize of the appropriations for sanitation purposeswould hardly
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . riends divided the Isthmus into twohostile camps. Rivalry of this sortwas unfortunate and needless. Inthe words of Admiral Schley after thebattle of Santiago: There was gloryenough for all. But the result wasto decry and to depreciate the workof Col. Gorgas in making the Isthmushabitable. As a matter of fact nohistorian will for one moment hesi-tate to state that only by that workwas it made possible to dig the Canalat all. Col. Goethals himself in hismoments of deepest doubt as to thesize of the appropriations for sanitation purposeswould hardly question that statement. That someother man than Gorgas might have done the workwith the experience of the French and the dis-covery of the malignant quality of the mosquitoto guide him is undoubtedly true. That some otherman than Goethals might have dug the Canal withthe experience of two earlier engineers, as well asof the French to serve as warnings, is equally these two finished the work and to each belongsthe glory for his ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, HOUSING THE SANITARY DEPARTMENT BEGINNING THE WARFARE ON MOSQUITOES 255 Col. Gorgas first visited the Isthmus in a little pamphlet which I have before me hethen described simply the essence of the problemhe had to meet. He found camped on a hill, per-fectly drained and supplied with good water, 450marines—who of course were men of exceptionallygood physique, robust and vigorous. Yet in fourmonths 170 out of the 450 were infected withmalaria, and Col. Gorgas said, if these men wereour laborers, working daily in Culebra Cut, exposedto the sun and weather, many of these cases would is partial to malaria—which had already bitten aninfected negro. The result was the spread of theinfection among the marines. As Col. Gorgas putit, The condition is very much the same as ifthese four or five hundred natives had the smallpoxand our marines had never been vaccinated. Tocorrect this condition he proposed, to take
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