I shall not dwell on the means of combatting malaria, because they are well known to everybody, and shall limit myself to propose to the delegates to wage a war against malaria like that which is being waged against yellow fever.

If we succeed in convincing everyone that it is within his power to guard himself against the disease by avoiding the mosquito bite which produces it, simply by screening the doors and windows of dwellings with wire gauze in order to prevent the entrance of mosquitoes, then we shall have advanced far in this direction. My proposition, therefore, consists in making an efficient propaganda against malaria by advising everyone to take good care of himself and avoid mosquito bites. This accomplished, the action of the authorities will thereby be greatly reduced.

TRANSMISSIBLE CHRONIC DISEASES.

There is yet another important thing to add to the international sanitary police, and I wish to call your attention to the following fact: Heretofore, all nations have devoted their attention especially to the protection against acute transmissible diseases, by the means to which I have already referred, but experience is teaching us that it is necessary to defend ourselves against transmissible chronic diseases.

Trachoma, beri-beri, tuberculosis and malaria have just been mentioned. Is it possible, knowing, as we do, that they are transmissible diseases, and consequently, avoidable, that we should fail to devise the necessary means to prevent them?

I call your attention especially to tuberculosis, trachoma and beriberi, and more particularly to trachoma.

I have just heard that in some places this disease is entirely unknown, but so far as our country is concerned, I would say that frequently vessels arrive at our ports with Chinese immigrants on board, among whom there are usually some patients suffering from trachoma. There was on one occasion, I remember, I was compelled to re-embark 220 patients who had trachoma, and who arrived in one single vessel which brought 600 Chinese. In another instance I caused 120 to be re-embarked, and subsequently I had to again re-embark 20 or 30 more patients of trachoma every month. Therefore, we should prevent the entrance of persons afflicted with trachoma. A law is now under consideration in Mexico to prevent the admission not only of this kind of patients, but also of those who might become a burden to the State because they are not able to work, so that the lame, the onearmed, the blind, etc., who are unable to work, shall not be permitted to enter the country.

In the report which I shall submit to you tomorrow, will appear the appropriation which the General Government of Mexico has made for the sanitation of ports. The sanitary conditions of the port of Tampico are now being improved, and the sanitation of the ports of Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, Manzanillo, and Mazatlan is almost completed, and in all these works our Government has spent the enormous sum of $45,800,000.

The reports to which Dr. Licéaga made a brief reference will be found in full in the Appendix, page 173.

The session adjourned.

SECOND DAY, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3.

Morning Session.

All the delegates of this Convention being present, except those of Chile, the session was called to order at 11 A. M., Dr. Eduardo Licéaga presiding.

THE CHAIRMAN. I beg the delegates not to begin this session by reading the minutes, in order to make up the time we have employed in our visit to the Penitentiary. Before we commence our regular business, Dr. Guiteras will take the floor because he desires to make a motion which will be referred to the Advisory Committee to be considered and decided upon before we end our sessions, to determine whether or not it should be taken into consideration.

Dr. Guiteras read the following motion, which, in accordance with the suggestion of the Chairman, was referred to the Advisory Committee for consideration:

"ADAPTATION OF THE CONVENTION OF WASHINGTON TO THE EUROPEAN COLONIES IN AMERICA.

"Whereas the Conference of Paris of 1903 did not include in its resolutions all the measures required for combatting yellow fever, which measures were adopted by the Convention of Washington;

"Whereas the European colonies on the American continent are not, therefore, guided, so far as yellow fever is concerned, by the same convention in force in the American Republics;

Whereas some of said colonies are frequently the foci of yellow fever;

It is recommended that, through correspondence to be established between our Permanent Bureau and that of Paris, the plan of sanitary measures against yellow fever, adopted at the Convention of Washington in 1905, be submitted to the European nations, either to be considered by them separately, or to be submitted to the next Sanitary Convention of European States, or in such other manner as may be agreed upon between the two permanent Bureaus.

"NATIONALIZATION OF SANITARY SERVICES.

"Whereas the success obtained on this Continent within the last few years of the campaign against epidemic diseases is due to the intervention of Central Governments;

"Whereas the lack of means on the part of local authorities, as well as the serious inconvenience brought about by dualism in the sanitary authorities, has been repeatedly shown;

"The Convention recommends to the American Nations the nationalization and centralization of the sanitary authority by means of legislation, and the establishment of a Department of Public Health."

THE CHAIRMAN. In accordance with the program adopted, the reading of the extracts which are to be presented by each of the delegates, will now be continued. The delegate of Guatemala has the floor.

The delegate of Guatemala then read his report, which was not read in a former session for the reasons which he has already explained. (See Appendix, page 171.)

THE CHAIRMAN. The delegate of Salvador has the floor, and will read an extract from his report.

The delegate of Salvador then read an extract of the report which he submits to the convention, in accordance with the provisions of the program, and which will be found in the Appendix, page 188.

DR. WYMAN. Mr. Chairman: We have with us this morning the Secretary of the Bureau of American Republics-the Acting Director at the present time-who has come from Washington to show the interest of the Bureau of the American Republics in the Convention.

I move, Sir, that the privileges of the floor be granted to Mr. Yanes, Secretary of the Bureau of American Republics.

DR. JOHNSON. I second the motion.

DR. YANES then delivered in Spanish the following address:

In view of the existing relations between the International Bureau of the American Republics, which I have the honor to represent, and the international sanitary conventions, it is perfectly natural that this Bureau should desire to be with you here on this important occasion, and to that end I have come from Washington, commissioned by said Bureau, as the bearer of the cordial greeting of the Bureau and its Governing Board, who sincerely wish you Godspeed and the greatest success in your humanitarian work.

The Honorable John Barrett, Director of the Bureau, contemplated coming personally to greet you, but inasmuch as just at this time the Central American Peace Conference is being held in Washington in the offices of the Bureau, he entrusted to me this highly appreciated honor, with the express request that I should personally represent him and greet you in his name.

This is a gala day for the International Bureau of the American Republics. It is the first time in the history of the Bureau that two events of transcendental importance for Pan-America are taking place simultaneously. There, in Washington, under the same roof that shelters the Bureau, the Central-American Peace Conference, as I said before, is holding its sessions, a Conference brought about through the noble, great, disinterested and friendly initiative of the two eminent. statesmen who guide the destinies of Mexico and the United States. This friendly suggestion was carefully accepted by our brethren of Central America, full of hope in the future, for the purpose of seeking a peaceful settlement of their differences.

Here in this beautiful and legendary City of Mexico, the cradle and home of many illustrious men, in response to the call of the International Sanitary Bureau, extended to the Governments of the International Union through the Bureau of the American Republics, the representatives of the medical science, high-minded and brave warriors that they are, have assembled to again hold a conference of learning, their noble and sole ideal being the welfare of mankind.

This is the third time that the Bureau of the American Republics attends your conventions, and also the third time it has felt proud to see assembled the great scientists of Pan-America-from pole to poleunited in behalf of the common good. Co-laborers in a holy cause,

genuine representatives of the most lofty altruism, you come to this tournament of learning to teach the whole world all you have discovered by burning the midnight oil, in your long hours of vigil at the bedside of the sick, in the solitude of your libraries, struggling against. mystery, armed only with your conscience, in order to avoid the evils afflicting mankind, to prevent contagion and to improve the conditions of the poor, who are ever the greatest victims in all great calamities.

Not only Pan-America, but the whole world, has followed, step by step, your struggles and your triumphs since you met for the second time in Washington, and the world hopes to learn what progress you have since made and what plans you have formed for the future. (Applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN. Without prejudice to the right of the delegate of Ecuador to read the extract from his report tomorrow, we shall now proceed to discuss the measures of International Sanitary Police relating to yellow fever.

I should like to know if any of the delegates has any objections to make. As no one desires to make any remarks, I will take the liberty to say a few words.

Gentlemen: Inasmuch as the object of our meeting is to continue to study in detail all such processes as may be efficiently employed in behalf of mankind, especially concerning the transmission of contagious and infectious diseases, I will now explain the method we have been following in Mexico for many years.

Our sanitary provisions do not change measures that have already been accepted. I here and now declare that I accept the resolutions adopted by the Second International Sanitary Convention concerning yellow fever. I make this explanation because what I am going to say deviates somewhat from the practice recommended therein; but since said practice is recommended so that one nation may not injure another, it does not limit in any sense the right to make said practice less severe if it deems it can better protect itself by so doing.

The manner in which we defend ourselves against yellow fever is based on the resolution adopted by the Dresden Convention, and by the first Convention of Paris, which have not been modified in Europe, as Dr. Guiteras has pointed out.

The International Convention held in Paris in 1903, devotes only one article to yellow fever, in which it recommends to the countries where the yellow fever stegomya exists, that their sanitary provisions should be in accordance therewith, but Dr. Guiteras has presented the question under a very interesting aspect. Instead of the Paris Convention coming to Pan-America and advising them to make their rules and regulations so that they will conform to the knowledge that medical science now has concerning yellow fever, it is Dr. Guiteras who now suggests to the Paris Convention that it be guided by such rules and regulations as we have adopted, using them as a model in preparing their rules and regulations to be put in force in their colonies where yellow fever prevails.

This interchange of views and experiences is of unquestioned utility, and we see it every day. The Convention of Paris advises us to adopt certain measures; we thereupon accept them, and after having carefully studied the same, we return them modified to said Convention..

The object of this preamble is simply to explain that what I am going to say is not against the resolution adopted, but only to state what we do in Mexico.

We do not make the inspection just as prescribed in the Sanitary Convention of Washington. Now the inspection of healthy passengers on board of vessels consists in the complete isolation of said persons until six days shall have elapsed, while in Mexico we only watch said persons.

In accordance with the Convention of Paris, the vigilance consists in the fact that healthy persons on board a vessel coming from a port infected with yellow fever, may land and be granted free pratique, but they are, nevertheless, watched, during the days remaining in order to complete the six days of inspection.

This practice, which is the one we observe, forms a part of our Sanitary Code. We have no place in which to isolate yellow fever patients, so that when a vessel arrives, the health officers make the inspection visit, and examine each of the passengers, takes his temperature to determine whether or not he has fever, and if he has no fever the following distinction is made:

Nothing is done to persons who show that they are immune concerning yellow fever, and those who cannot prove that they are immune as to said disease, are divided into two classes, namely: one comprising those whose destination is the Central Plateau of Anahuac, 2,000 meters above sea level, where the stegomya does not procreate. Experiments have been made to breed them, but they have hardly been able to live two weeks.

Therefore, persons who intend to go to the Central Plateau of the Republic are not neglected, but are taken to said plateau, being sure that they will not spread yellow fever even though they are infected with it.

The other group consists of persons who intend to remain at the ports of arrival, or in such places on the coast where we now know that yellow fever has existed. Said persons are not isolated, but are watched by the authorities charged with the performance of this duty, and he does so in the way I indicated to you yesterday. It is the duty of sanitary brigades to daily visit persons who are not immune, keeping a special record of those who enter and leave, watching them for a period of five or six days, that is to say, until the end of the vigilance period, or until the date they are taken sick. We have followed this method for a long time with excellent results, and consequently, I have arrived at the following conclusion: The more severe the provisions adopted to prevent the intercommunication of people, the more difficult it is to obtain this result. To illustrate this fact, I shall avail myself of the examples afforded by the besieged and the besiegers. In a besieged city, the besiegers show as much interest in preventing the escape of the besieged as the latter are interested in preventing the entrance of the besiegers. This is the problem, and yet it is seen that the besieged go out, and that the besiegers enter. If such intercommunication can not be avoided in besieged cities, how could it be avoided in the case of ports?

Some people arrive at a port who greatly desire to continue their travel in order to join their families, or to continue their business,