Malaria in Panama

It is particularly opportune in the field of public health and preventive medicine that a complete account of the history and present status of malaria and malarial control at Panama should be written and that members of the Medical Corps of the United States Army should write it. It was here that General William Crawford Gorgas and his associates demonstrated that a great engineering enterprise need not fail even in the fever-stricken tropics if adequately provided and skilfully administered sanitation and medical service were supplied. Army organization, a vision of the problems, and medical and sanitary skill mastered malaria on a gigantic scale. Though whipped, malaria is rarely, if at all, completely vanquished. In the tropics, at least, the fight goes on continuously and ground gained is quickly lost when economy cuts down resources. Lieut. Col. J. S. Simmons writes the history of malaria on the Isthmus of Panama (1501-1938),