--------------------------------------------------------- | Average | Total | Annual Death | Number. | Deaths. | Rate per | | | Thousand. --------------------+---------+---------+---------------- White Employees | 10,709 | 179 | 16.71 Black Employees | 28,634 | 953 | 33.28 |---------+---------+---------------- Total | 39,343 | 1,132 | 28.77 --------------------------------------------------------- --but accidents account for a considerable proportion of the deaths. During the same period the average number of American women and children in Commission quarters was 1,337, among whom occurred nine deaths, an average annual death-rate of 6.73 per thousand. In addition to malaria there is one other disease which proves fatal to considerable numbers of employees, attacking principally the black labourers. This is pneumonia, to which are attributed altogether 328 deaths as against 154 from malaria. It appears that special research is needed into the cause and prevention of this disease among negroes in the tropics. * * * * * In 1907 no less than 71,000 persons arrived on the Isthmus, all of whom had to pass the Commission doctor at the entrance port. All but transients are vaccinated on arrival, and great watchfulness is exercised against the introduction of any new disease from abroad. Thus, when bubonic plague broke out at Guayaquil, the Department of Sanitation commenced a campaign against rats as a precaution against the spread of the disease (which is propagated by the rat flea) in case quarantine measures failed to keep it out. Again, when one or two cases of rabies recently occurred on the Isthmus, all dogs for whom an owner could not be found were at once destroyed. _Life on the Isthmus, and on the Future of the White Man in the Tropics._