It may be useful to mention that the entire death-roll among the employees on the Panama Canal and railway from the American occupation down to June 30, 1912--that is, about eight years--was 5,141, of whom 284 were Americans. Of this total, 4,119 died of disease and 1,022 from violence or accident. During the same period 49 American women and 87 American children died.[12] Sir Ronald Ross, as I have said, was told by the British Consul at Panama in 1904 that the French lost in the nine years of their occupancy some 50,000 lives, principally from malaria and yellow fever. This may be an over-estimate, but there is no doubt that the American figure shows an enormous improvement on the French. It is easy to conclude that what has been done in sanitation at the isthmus of Panama may be done anywhere else in the tropics, where malaria and yellow fever prevail. That may be true, but we must also remember that the work of Panama had behind it all the wealth and resources of a mighty republic of 90,000,000 citizens. The expenditure on these hygienic purposes at the isthmus has been enormous, though not a penny has been wasted. Down to the end of December, 1912, the total outlay of the Department of Sanitation was $15,500,000. Waterworks, sewers, etc., accounted for another $2,500,000, so that we get a grand total expenditure on sanitation of $18,000,000. This will certainly rise to $20,000,000 before the canal is finished, so that for the ten and a half years of its construction there will have been an annual expenditure for all health purposes of $1,900,000. It is not likely that there will be many tropical areas of this kind with so large a sum available for the luxury of scientific sanitation. Again, it must be noticed that the administration had special advantages at the isthmus. It exercised something like military authority. It had absolute powers of deportation, and could enforce its regulations as it pleased. And in considering the statistics it must also be borne in mind that not only the physical but the moral and mental health of the work-people at the isthmus was promoted in every way. We shall look into the life of the Panama construction camps in the next chapter. The social interest and amusement provided for the employee must have counted for something beside the sewering and screening and mosquito-hunting. All the same, the success achieved at Panama is full of hope and promise for tropical life in the future. Colonel Gorgas writes encouragingly:--