Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . sa pleasant, interlude in an oth-erwise monotonous life. Asthey have thirty days sickleave with pay every yearthey are quite prone to turnto the pleasant slopes of An-con Hill, with a week at thecharming sanitarium on Ta-boga Island as a fitting close—a sort of cafe parfait to top offthe feast. Surgery even seems to have lost its ter-rors there. Why, they even bring their friends tobe operated on, said one of the surgeons laughinglywhen talking of the popularity of the hospital amongthe Zone dwellers. Charity cases have numbered as many as 66,000a
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . sa pleasant, interlude in an oth-erwise monotonous life. Asthey have thirty days sickleave with pay every yearthey are quite prone to turnto the pleasant slopes of An-con Hill, with a week at thecharming sanitarium on Ta-boga Island as a fitting close—a sort of cafe parfait to top offthe feast. Surgery even seems to have lost its ter-rors there. Why, they even bring their friends tobe operated on, said one of the surgeons laughinglywhen talking of the popularity of the hospital amongthe Zone dwellers. Charity cases have numbered as many as 66,000a year and the records show that during the periodof greatest activity on the Zone as many as 70different nationalities were ministered to. Thequestion of color was often an embarrassing gradations of shades between pure white todarkest African is so exceedingly delicate in Panamathat there is always difficulty in determining whetherthe subject under consideration belongs to the goldor the silver class, for the words black and A FETE DAY AT TABOGA THE SYSTEM OF FREE MEDICAL TREATMENT 267 are tactfully avoided in the Zone intheir reference to is my plan, said Col. Masonin charge of the hospital. Oncer-tain days the patients are allowedvisitors. When the color of the in-mate is problematical, as is usuallythe case with women, I ask if shewants her husband to visit her. Ifshe does and he proves to be a negro,she goes, into the colored ward. Ifshe still insists that she is white,she can go into the white ward, butmust dispense with his visits. Under our treaty the Zone sani-tary department takes charge of the insane of Colonand Panama, and a very considerable share of thegrounds at Ancon is divided off with barbed wire fortheir use. The number of patients runs well intothe hiindreds, with very few Americans. Most areJamaica negroes and the hospital authorities saythat they are mentally unbalanced by the rush andexcitement of life on the Zone. I nev
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