Panama and What it Means. By John Foster Fraser. (Cassell
and Co. Gs.)—Mr. Fraser's cleverly written descriptions and excellent photographs help, to give a very vivid idea of the fascinating work which is now being completed in the Isthmus of Panama. But it is not only with the engineering side of the Canal that Mr. Fraser deals. He gives an. interesting account of the whole history of the scheme from the inception of tho disastrous French project, and catalogues the innumerable subordinate diffieulties—political, financial, administrative, and hygienic—which had to be surmounted before the physical diffi- culty of the actual construction could be even approached. No part of Mr. Fraser's story is more interesting than that in which he writes of "The Battle Against Disease," which is being constantly fought in the Canal Zone, and which has brought down the death-rate to twenty-five per thousand a year. Under the directions of Colonel Gorges the mosquito has been practically exterminated in the vicinity of the workings, and thus yellow fever has been abolished and malaria greatly reduced. "Some two hundred thousand gallons of oil a year," says Mr. Fraser, "have been used in extermination. With a copper can strapped to his back—in shape much like a Swiss milk carrier—a nigger with a tube in his fist goes tramping, in an area he has to look after, through bush and rough grass and rank weeds, searching for the home of the mosquitoes. Spongy
marshland with pools must be closely sprinkled. So when the mosquito larva comes up through the water to breathe it runs into the greasy scum, and it never knows for what purpose it came into the world." The speculations upon the results of the opening of the canal, especially on the British West Indies, with which the book concludes, are perhaps of less interest than its earlier descriptive chapters. But for the rest, with the exception of an occasional doubtful statement such as that "mosquitoes do not like nigger flesh," the circumstances connected with the canal- building are excellently set out.
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