Panama Canal Fever.

Patea Mail, 14 March 1882, Page 3

Panama Canal Fever.

Swamp fever is killing the navvies on the Panama canal. They sicken and die in scores. Not much of the canal is cut, bnt the deaths are said to reach a thousand already. This estimate is given by a New York paper, and is probably a gross exaggeration ; for there is a strong political jealousy of this project among American politicians, who will continue to ridicule it by distorting facts and magnifying dangers until the canal’s success converts them to a new way. But this swamp fever is probably the chief obstacle to the canal’s speedy completion. The isthmus of Darien is a low region of swamp and jungle. The air is mostly stagnant, being within the belt of calms. The navvies clear a narrow track for the canal, and when the sun is let into the clearings, the soft decaying vegetation which forms the soil is played on by the sun’s fierce heat, and there arises a jungle vapour consisting of gases let loose from the decayed compost. This vapour is not merely unhealthy : experience proves it is poisonous in a high degree. The effect of breathing this malarious air is counter-balanced to some extent by the vigorous exercise of navvying; and it is as safe for gangs of men to cut a canal as it was some years ago to cut a railway. The work will be done in spite of fever, if money be forthcoming.