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334 ployes today is lower than in the United States army and navy, and as good as on any similar work in the north. While yellow fever. has caused the greatest alarm and malaria the great- est loss of 'time, the disease that for months caused the greatest num- ber of deaths among employees is pneumonia. Deaths from pneumonia among whites are very tare, but negroes seem to have not the slight- est resistance and die of this disease with alarming rapidity. Fifty per cent of all cases in negroes die. Care of the Negroes. The medical care of the great army of canal employees has been often amusing, occasionally exciting and al- ways interesting. The West Indian negro is mild of temper, credulous, usually courteous and takes himself very seriously. He is only a child in his intellect and his emotions, and when treated as such is not a bad sort. He is a glutton for medicine, is made so truly miserable by his ex- aggerations of his little indisposi- tions that his descriptions of his symptoms are as amusing as_ they are graphic. One poor fellow whose woebegone countenance looked as if he had never smiled approached me and, in a voice full of tears, said, "Doctor, in de mornin' I has dark eyes, and, doctor, a giddiness in ma head, and a neediness in my bowels." ' Another was not sick, but wanted some medicine for, a cold. His only symptom was a slight stomach-ache, which he explained by saying, "Doc- tor, ah works in de water an ah takes cold in ma feet, an de cole abstrack up out of de.feet and wind 'roun' de nabal." But nature has never sug- gested to him that he lay up a win- ter's store, or that he produce what he needs to eat; in fact, she lays it at his door and he needs but to par- take. He is attracted to the Isthmus by the prospect of high pay in the employ of the canal, but he has no notion of working hard or contin- uously. Inspecting the Labor Camps. In the winter of 1905-06 it became my duty to institute a daily inspec- tion of all labor camps in Cristobal, and in making my rounds I was sur- prised at the number of men in camp during working hours. Some were sick, some informed me that they had "worked hard" the day 'before and needed "a little rest,' and not a few (of English persuasion) answered my questions as to their reasons for not working in a most supercilious man- 'Tae Marine REVIEW ner, "Ah didn't fawncy to work to- day, sah!" But there has been a great weeding out of deadwood among the negroes and they have profited by their, compulsory education in dili- gence and hygienic living, so that as a body they are much more efficient than two or three years ago. I said compulsory education At first they did not like the food we offered them and preferred a starvation diet, which they prepared for themselves and which made them an easy prey to disease; but when compelled to cat at commission kitchens and to sleep in well-ventilated buildings, or lose their positions, their condition steadily im- proved and now, like children, they are happier for their little punishment. Be- sides about 30,000 negroes there are some 60 other nationalities represented among the canal employees, the most efficient of which are the Spaniards and Italians brought from Europe by contract. Beside the medical and the mosquito work of the sanitary department a large force of men was kept busy for over a year digging out and removing the accumulations of filth of many years, especially in Colon and Panama. Thousands upon thousands of cart loads of rubbish, garbage and other filth were removed from the narrow alleys and little back yards, where it had been thrown for years and left for nature to dispose of. One of our greatest offenses against the feelings of the natives was our open-air treat- ment of their dirty condition, which required the removal of the high, close fences with which they had surrounded their little dooryards with their dis- gusting accumulations. Up to the time that sewers were completed night soil was disposed of by the bucket brigade system in the cities, and by pit closets in less thickly populated districts. Survey for Water Supply. While this sanitary work was going on, the division of municipal engineer- ing made preliminary surveys for wa- ter supplies and sewers for Colon, Pan- ama and for all important towns along the canal, beside providing distilled or sterilized drinking water for all the white employees on the Isthmus. It was not necessary to lay pipes 5 or 6 ft. under ground to escape frost, and the work was pushed forward without delay, so that the city of Panama was ready to receive its water, supply on July 4, 1906. About a year later the Colon water works were completed, and soon all the towns in the zone had sewers and water supplies as good as the average town of the north. It has been found that the tropical streams _ September, 19 of the Isthmus furnish excellent water supplies, which, although containing considerable organic matter, are palat. able and safe. Bacteriological exam- inations of all water supplies are made weekly, and copper sulphate is yseq successfully to inhibit growth of algae, Panama City's Water Reservoir, The source of supply for the city of Panama, a reservoir of 500,000,000 gal, is 13 miles inland toward the head wa- ters of the little Rio Grande, whose lower valley is to form the southern end of the canal. The elevation of the reservoir is 232 ft. (its area, 65 acres), so that there is plenty of head for all except the higher buildings at Ancon hospital. The 16-in. main, by which the water is brought to the city, is tapped by five small towns on the way, and through most of the distance lies on top of the ground or only slightly covered. The Colon water supply is about four miles from the city in the rather shallow basin of Brazos Brook, a reservoir 122 acres in area. Its ca- pacity is 435,000,000 gallons, but as its high-water elevation is only 45.1, the water is pumped into a standpipe, from which it flows through a 20-in. main to the city. The water for both Colon and Panama is filtered through sand beds under, pressure and is metered to the cities by- Venturi meters and again metered to consumers, the dif- ference between the Venturi reading and the total of:service meter readings being the amount charged to the mu- nicipality. The water to consumers costs in Panama 25 cents per 1,000 gal.; in Colon, 40 cents. Hydrants are charged at $49.68 each. Besides the fire hydrants there are curbstone taps, located two blocks apart, from which the poor may draw water without charge. These are paid for by the city. Sewers and water works, when completed, were handed over to the Department of Public Works, a branch of the Department of Civil Government. It is expected that water rates and sewer charges which are collected by this department will, in fifty years, reimburse us for the entire expense of the sanitation of Colon and Panama. The construction. .of the Panama Canal sewers was a simple matter, as there was plenty of grade to the Ocean in several directions, but in Colon was another proposition. Man- zanillo Island, on which Colon is situated, is an old coral reef, the surface of which is only about 1 to 3 ft. above sea level, in consequence of which a proportion of the sewer system is at or below sea level. Sewage is delivered into a sump in the center of the city, 27 considerable