Dr. John W. Ross, of the United States Navy, Major Louis A. La Garde, of the Army, and I had all had a large experience in tropical military service. We were, therefore, thoroughly imbued with the idea that from the very beginning we must make ample and liberal provision for the care of a large number of sick. We were impressed with the fact that the constant sick rate of the Army in the Philippines had been ninety per thousand during the year 1898; that it had been even larger with our Army at Santiago, Cuba. We therefore thought that we should prepare to have at least fifty per thousand of our employees on the Isthmus constantly sick. Our estimates were based upon fifty thousand employees. If, as occurred with our Army in the Philippines, we should have three hundred per thousand constantly sick, we would need a bed capacity, equipment and personnel for the care of fifteen thousand sick. If, as we hoped, it might not exceed fifty per thousand of our employees sick, we should only need a bed capacity of twenty-five hundred beds. We determined to keep at least fifty beds per thousand for our actual force; that this should be the minimum number, and that the number of beds should be increased as the force increased. It is a matter of interest to note the fact that during the year that our force was at its maximum, fifty-eight thousand men during the calendar year 1913, we had a hospital capacity of just about twenty-five hundred beds, though the constant sick rate of our employees at this time was only about twenty-two per thousand. The hospital service had become so popular, and had acquired such a reputation for the skillful service and good care which could be obtained there, that a large number of people came to seek its benefits from various Spanish American countries north and south of us. We had at this time some eight hundred individuals in the hospitals who were not Canal employees. Dr. Ross was determined that our hospital service should be first-class in every respect; that a sick employee of the Canal Commission on the Zone should be able to command just as skillful, and just as good care, as he could command in our largest centers in the United States. With this object in view the hospitals were equipped with bedding and other hospital supplies of the very best kind. Very little was expended upon buildings. In general we used the buildings that had been erected by the French some twenty years before, and which were still standing in fairly usable condition. Dr. Ross impressed upon everyone with whom he came in contact that the hospital department was organized primarily for the care of the sick, and that the comfort and happiness of the sick must always have the first consideration. This department retained this principle as its most marked characteristic during the whole period of its existence.