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Show The Panama Canal rr-iHE United States is building a great monu- II ment on the Isthmus of Darius. An artificial river 500 feet in width and 40 or 45 feet in depth through that mountainous isthmus, will, when completed, make all the other great works cf men seem small by comparison. And see how j events have adjusted themselves. The French ! tried to do the work and failed, and so would our country have failed except for something not dreamed of when the work was first projected. It became necessary to make war upon Spain , in order to arrest and stamp out the wrongs of ) centuries. When the United States obtained pos- ! session of Cuba, our army was confronted there by a pestilence which had never been driven ' away in a full hundred years. Then a greater i conquest was attempted than the subduing of the island. Our Government sent a board of medical men to Ilavana to try to search out the cause and find a remedy for yellow fever. Twenty-five 3 ears before a Spanish physician had expressed the belief that the disease was transmitted on he sting of a mosquito that was prevalent there. From the fact that a frost sufficiently severe to kill the mosquito, arrested at once the pestilence, ' ' this board thought the matter worth investigat- ! ing. A number of these mosquitos were caught and then, the matter being explained, volunteers were called for to submit themselves to the stings of these mosquitos. A number at once responded. re-sponded. Of the number, if we remember correctly, cor-rectly, four, one physician, one devoted female nurse and two male nurses, died and all were !very 111. It was clear then that the disease came from the mosquito, but it was unreasonable to think those insects could transmit the fever until un-til they were themselves tainted. So more vol- ' unteers were called upon to sleep in the clothing of yellow fever patients and in rooms where they had been 111, and not one was infected. Then it was clear that the insects, in ordor to transmit the fever, must first feast upon pa-1 pa-1 tionts, ill or dead, of the fever. The remedy was then readily suggested. It was to isolate all the sick and destroy the insects. So soon as this was done, there were no more cases the pesti-m pesti-m lence was killed, and there has been no yellow fever epidemic since. It was one of the most uperb triumphs over wrought by science. Then search was made for the cause of the Chagres, or Panama fever. The yellow fever mosquito was a monster with two bills, and it was found that only I the female mosquito carried the poison. It would light upon a person, proceed to make a breakfast by drawing the blood through one bill, and at the same moment inject into the victim its poison through the other bill, and when saturated, satur-ated, sail away singing the only time she ever sang. The same species of mosquito was not found at Pana a but another species with one long, flat bil' fell under suspicion and investigation soon established that the suspicion was well founded. When it was exterminated the disease disappeared from the Isthmus. Except for this, the canal would never have been completed. When the building of the Panama railroad was commenced, the company imported several shiploads ship-loads of laborers- from Ireland. In grading the road out over the swampy lands twenty miles out from Aspinwall 20,000 of these pooi men died of the fever. Then Jamaica negroes were substituted and many of those died. The road was finally completed by Maine lumbermen. Had nothing been found to drive out the fever the canal would never have been completed. The sacrifice would have been so terrible that the world would have called a halt. How many died when France made the attempt, no one knows except the members of the company, but we suspect that the appalling losses was really the main reason why the work was abandoned. The triumph had to be made over the disease before the second great achievement was attempted. at-tempted. But now the work is taking form, and with Its completion we doubt not but the gathered nations that came to the opening ceremonies, with uncovered heads, will joyfully volunteer their evidence that among all the masterful works of men, nothing else compares with the completion comple-tion of that canal, and for all time to some as succeeding generations of men look upon it, they will, referring to the builders, declare that "There were giants in those days." |