nearly three million pounds having been
spent in improving the health conditions of this small area. The
agreement which reserves the towns of Panama and Colon to the
administration of the republic of Panama provides for American
interference in matters that may concern general health, and the Canal
authorities have taken the fullest advantage of this provision. The
streets of both towns have been paved; insanitary dwellings have been
ruthlessly demolished; water-works have been provided by loans of
American money, the water rate being collected by American officials.
The meanest house is equipped with a water-closet and a shower-bath.
Panama and Colon are now models of cleanliness, and from their
appearance might belong to a North American State. Efficiency is the
watchword, and in cleansing these towns the American health officers
have not troubled themselves with the compromises which would temper
the despotism of British officials. Americans can hardly be imagined
as stretching their consciences by such a concession as that, for
instance, which in British India exempts gentlemen of position from
appearance in the civil courts. Efficiency is not popular with those
who do not practise it, and the Latin races of Southern and Central
America have no love for their northern neighbors. The Americans, like
the Germans, would increase their popularity did they appreciate the
value of personal geniality in smoothing government.

Within the Canal Zone the jungle has been cut back from the proximity
of dwelling-houses; surface water, whether stagnant or running, is
regularly sterilized by doses of larvicide; all inhabited buildings are
protected by mosquito-proof screening, and, in some places, a
mosquito-catching staff is maintained. At the time of my visit not a
mosquito was to be seen; but this was during the season of dry heat.
During the rainy months mosquitos are, it seems, still far from
uncommon; and the latest sanitary rules emphasize the importance of
systematically catching them. Medical experience has shown that if
houses are kept clear of mosquitos, there is very little fever, even in
places where the water pools and channels are left unsterilized. Wire
screening, supplemented by a butterfly net, is the great preventive.
But we can not attain the good without an admixture of evil: behind the
wire screening the indoor atmosphere becomes very oppressive. Yellow
fever, the scourge of the isthmus in former days, has b