Note 11 — Chapter V · THE HISTORY OF THE REBELLION UP-TO-DATE.

In an exceedingly interesting letter from the New York correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, dated May 24th, I found the following valuable statistics on the subject of epidemics in Cuba:—

"The dread of yellow fever might reasonably have discouraged the enlistment of volunteers, who could foresee that they would be needed in Cuba during the rainy season, but the offers and applications show that the Government could take into the service to-morrow 500,000 men, instead of the 125,000 already called, if it should consent to accept them. The mortality reports of the Spanish army are appalling, but yellow fever has not been the most deadly of the diseases with which the Spanish soldiers have contended. The number of deaths in the military hospitals on the island last year was 32,534, and of the 30,000 sick men sent back to Spain at least 10 per cent. must have died, for many of them were beyond cure. The reported deaths were distributed as follows, in round numbers: Typhoid fever and dysentery, 14,500; malarial fever, 7000; yellow fever, 6000; other diseases, 5000. And 2583 persons died of small-pox in Havana. But the resident inspector of our Marine Hospital Bureau (which is a kind of National Board of Health) reports that only one of the five large military hospitals in Havana is in good sanitary condition; the others are little better than pest-houses, and one of them is characterised by the inspector as 'the filthiest building in the city.' The Spanish soldiers have been sacrificed to the greed and corruption of their commanders and the prevailing mediæval ignorance of sanitation.

In the recent official indictments of Spanish misrule in Cuba, scarcely anything has been said about the perpetual menace of yellow fever infection to which this country has been subjected, and to the enormous actual cost in the United States of fever epidemics, the seeds of which were introduced from the island. Of late years all our yellow fever epidemics have come from Cuba, and the infection has entered our Southern States in spite of the most elaborate precautions and defences. Many years ago the disease was sometimes brought from Vera Cruz; but Mexico, under the effective and progressive rule of Diaz, has cleansed her infected ports, and they are no longer to be feared. An epidemic of this fever on our southern seaboard, even if it be of short duration and attended by slight mortality, causes very great alarm—because the ravages of memorable visitations are recalled by the people—and paralyses commerce and industry throughout a wide area. The actual cost of such an epidemic may be 100,000,000 dols. The epidemic of last year entailed a loss of a third or a half of that sum. No relief can be expected so long as the island shall suffer under Spanish misrule. But now we may look forward with confidence to the time, not far distant, when this nuisance shall be abated."