President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Colonel William Crawford Gorgas as Sanitary Officer for the Panama Canal. Gorgas arrived in Panama in June 1904 with a sanitary team consisting of seven doctors and a single nurse, no funds and no supplies. Nearly all members of the team, including Gorgas, contracted malaria within the first two months. In spite of those handicaps, Gorgas proceeded, focusing first on yellow fever, then on malaria. It is estimated that 78,000 canal workers and thousands more Panamanians would have died had Dr. Gorgas not implemented his program of fumigation and sanitation.
Farmerettes float in the Independence Day Parade, New York City
The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
