" I have been one of the favored to whom it has been sent
year by year, and, keenly interested as I have always been in infectious
diseases, and particularly in malaria and dysentery, I doubt if anyone
has read it more faithfully. In evidence of the extraordinary advance
made in sanitation by Gorgas, I give a random example from one of his
monthly reports (1912): In a population of more than 52,000, the death
rate from disease had fallen to 7.31 per thousand; among the whites it
was 2.80 and among the colored people 8.77. Not only is the profession
indebted to Colonel Gorgas and his staff for this remarkable
demonstration, but they have offered an example of thoroughness and
efficiency which has won the admiration of the whole world. As J. B.
Bishop, secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission, has recently said:
"The Americans arrived on the Isthmus in the full light of these two
invaluable discoveries (the insect transmission of yellow fever and
malaria). Scarcely had they begun active work when an outbreak of yellow
fever occurred which caused such a panic throughout their force that
nothing except the lack of steamship accommodation prevented the flight
of the entire body from the Isthmus. Prompt, intelligent and vigorous
application of the remedies shown to be effective by the mosquito
discoveries not only checked the progress of the pest, but banished
it forever from the Isthmus.
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