This was about the maximum death rate of the British Army in the West Indies in the nineteenth century.
When, in 1904, the United States undertook to complete the Canal, everyone felt that the success or failure was largely a matter of sanitary control.

The necessary knowledge existed, but under the circumstances could it be made effective?
Many were doubtful.
Fortunately, there was at the time in the United States Army a man who had already served an apprenticeship in Cuba, and to whom more than to anyone else was due the disappearance of yellow fever from that island.
To a man, the profession in the United States felt that could Dr.Gorgas be given full control of the sanitary affairs of the Panama Zone, the health problem, which meant the Canal problem, could be solved.
There was at first a serious difficulty relating to the necessary administrative control by a sanitary officer.

In an interview which Dr.
Welch and I had with President Roosevelt, he keenly felt this difficulty and promised to do his best to have it rectified.

It is an open secret that at first, as was perhaps only natural, matters did not go very smoothly, and it took a year or more to get properly organized.

Yellow fever recurred on the Isthmus in 1904 and in the early part of 1905.