Number of traps set daily.. Decrease in number of rats, mice, and mongoose caught as compared with last year... HILO. Rats referred to this laboratory for bacteriological diagnosis.. Rats still under investigation... Human cases referred to this laboratory for bacteriological diagnosis.. Rat campaign, Honolulu. 1 1 1 1 Sixteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight rats and mongoose were taken in Honolulu, 15,642 being trapped, 9 found dead, 533 killed by sulphur dioxide, and 604 being shot from trees. Five rat catchers were employed for trapping rats in Honolulu from July 1, 1912, to February 1, 1913, when, owing to an increase of funds for this work, four additional trappers were employed with a much increased rat yield. A careful record is kept of each trapper's work and he is expected to bring a certain number of rats daily. Should there be a falling off in a trapper's work, a warning usually suffices to restore his work to a satisfactory basis. Quarantine transactions at Honolulu. Vessels 418 41 15 29 4 1 153 1 5 3 518 80, 741 553 1, 389 33, 816 646 66 204 Arriving with quarantinable disease or having had same on board during Persons treated in quarantine hospital upon request of board of health. Table giving transactions at national quarantine stations for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913-Continued. Table giving foreign, oriental, and insular stations and transactions for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913. NOTE.-Reports from Amoy, China, and La Guaira, Venezuela, were not received in time to be included, FOREIGN QUARANTINE. The duties of officers of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service detailed at foreign ports are as follows: First. The investigation into the previous whereabouts and the past and present sanitary history of all vessels destined for ports in the United States, its possessions, and dependencies. Second. The inspection of vessels, crews, and passengers, and the certification of freight. Third. The fumigation of ships to kill rats and mosquitoes, or the disinfection of ships when necessary. Fourth. The observation, if necessary, under detention of intending passengers for ports in the United States and its dependencies. Fifth. Weekly reports of transactions. Sixth. Weekly reports as to the health and sanitary conditions of the foreign port, and when possible of the country contiguous thereto. Seventh. The certification, in conjunction with the United States consular officers, of the bills of health issued, said certificates to be made just prior to the departure of the ship and to cover all requirements provided for by the United States quarantine regulations. FRUIT PORT INSPECTION SERVICE. The fruit port inspection service was not maintained during this fiscal year in accordance with the previous custom of maintaining acting assistant surgeons during the close quarantine season (Apr. Ĭ to Nov. 1) in the offices of the American consuls in the various Central American and West Indian fruit ports. The fruit ports were subjected to regular inspections by Acting Asst. Surg. R. P. Ames, who acted under the general supervision of Surg. J. H. White. Because of the report of Capt. Potter, of the British Royal Army Medical Corps, to the effect that the prevailing "vomiting sickness" in Jamaica in the autumn of 1912 was probably yellow fever, the bureau directed Surg. J. H. White to extend his inspection to Jamaica and vicinity. He spent, in accordance with this order, some days in Port Antonio and Kingston, visiting the hospitals and nearby small villages and seeing the people. The chief medical officer of Jamaica, Dr. Kerr, the colonial bacteriologist, Dr. Scott, and other physicians, extended Dr. White the utmost courtesy and every available facility, with the result that he submits report that in his opinion the vomiting sickness is as stated by Drs. Kerr and Scott, a meningitis, and could not possibly have been yellow fever for the following reasons: It occurs in winter and ceases with the first warm weather. It occurs in the hills and seldom on the coast. It attacks blacks in preference to whites or Hindus. It occurs most often where stegomyia are least frequent. The interval of time between primary and secondary cases is not sufficient for yellow fever. Surg. White was detailed to visit the coast towns of Mexico and report on conditions with relation to the possible incidence of yellow fever at any of these towns, reports that he visited all the eastern littoral of Mexico having any commercial relations with this country, and found as follows: Yellow fever was existent at the time of his visit July 6, 1913, in Campeche, and in semiendemic form. It did not exist either at Merida, Progreso, Frontera, Puerto Mexico, Vera Cruz, Tampico, or at San Juan Bautista. He was unable to reach Carmen on account of insurrectionists. He draws the conclusion that the present condition in Campeche is a residuum from former endemic conditions in Merida, which condition was eradicated in 1912, while the extension in Campeche escaped notice, and is now giving cause for serious concern, and may, unless extreme precautions are adopted, reinfect the city of Merida. He recommended the removal of quarantine_restrictions from Vera Cruz and Tampico entirely, and that at Frontera ships be allowed to enter the port and passengers to embark after five days' observation by Acting Asst. Surg. Eaves, but at Progreso no passengers be permitted, save certified immunes. Surg. White was also directed to visit and report upon the ports of Belize, Livingston, Puerto Barrios, Puerto Cortez, Puerto Limon, Bocas del Toro, and Almirante, and the interior towns having sanitary importance in the countries visited. On completion of this inspection in May, 1913, he reported as follows: Belize, capital town of the British colony of the same name, is in very good sanitary condition, though antimosquito work is needed, and the quarantine maintained against yellow fever ports is the best of all quarantines between the United States and Colon, save at Bocas del Toro. Guatemala.-Livingston having almost no commerce is becoming a negligible factor, and except for five or six white families, is nothing more than an isolated Carib village whose interior communication is with the mountains around Coban, and to which no ship can come nearer than two miles in safety on account of shoal water. It is nevertheless visited from time to time by the service representative Dr. R. P. Ames, and should be so visited as long as any shipping at all goes there. Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, nominally a subport of Livingston but de facto the only real port on this coast of the Republic, lies about 15 miles east of Livingston, has deep water approach, a fine wharf, and is the terminus of the Guatemala system of railroads reaching to the Pacific, and soon to extend into Mexico to the west and Salvador to the east and south, which commercial facilities conjoined with proximity to the States, makes Barrios the most important port, from a sanitary point of view, on the whole Central American coast. The town is in the making, and has so far been rather badly made, being built upon a marsh, and only spots filled in. Some fights have been made upon the stegomyiæ, but none on malarial mosquitoes. The United Fruit Co. and the Guatemala Railroad Co. both endeavor to keep down the former in their own interest, and in justice it must be said that the anopheles is here almost beyond control. The population is small and consequently Dr. Ames can see any cases which might be suspicious, and the probability of a concealed outbreak of yellow fever is not great. Incidentally Dr. White reports that the new dock here is a steel and concrete rat-proof structure, of similar but larger type to the one at Almirante referred to later. Of the interior cities of Guatemala the report states that they were to a large extent stegomyia free-not many being seen in Zacapa and |