?THE PROTECTION OF INDIA FROM YELLOW FEVER.
Yellow fever has not yet appeared in India, but the abundant presence of
the mosquito (stegomyia fasciata) which transmits it, the susceptibility of the
population, and the general conditions in the chief seaports are very favourable
to its existence and spread, and it is believed that the introduction of the virus
would be followed by devastating epidemics which would be exceedingly difficult
to control. In 1903 Sir Patrick Manson drew prominent attention to the risk
that the commercial developments which will follow the opening of the Panama
Canal may lead to the introduction of the disease into Asia, and in June 1911
the danger to India was discussed in an important paper by Major F. F. Gordon
Tucker, I.M.S., Professor of Pathology in the Grant Medical College, Bombay.
In order that first-hand information, which would be useful in devising timely
measures, might be available, I was deputed by the Government of India in
October 1911 to ascertain the conditions in a portion of the endemic area in
Central America, and in the principal seaports between that country and India.
The route by which I travelled and the names of the places visited are shown on
the accompanying map, and I have detailed in the last section of this report, the
information I was able to collect. For the remainder of my report I propose to
summarize briefly the opinions at which I have arrived regarding the degree of
danger of the introduction of yellow fever into India, and regarding the measures
which might be taken at present.
I.
The first ideas that come to one's mind on examining a map of the World,
or of the Pacific Ocean, prepared on Mercator's projection, are that the Panama
Canal will provide a direct route to Asia and India from Europe, the United
States and the endemic area of yellow fever, and that after the canal is open for
traffic there will be a danger of yellow fever being conveyed to India by direct
shipping to that country from, or by way of, ports in the endemic area on the
Atlantic side of the canal. But charts on Mercator's projection give a distorted
view of the features of the earth and a wrong impression of the shortest distances
between most ports, so that in order to ascertain whether our first ideas are
tenable, and to enable the problem with which India is concerned to be accurately
stated, it will be convenient to begin the attempt to estimate the degree of risk
of the introduction of yellow fever into that country with a tabular record of the
shortest distances between certain ports. This information is contained in the
following statement, which has been spaced with a view to show that problems
of  “ the East ” are sometimes only very indirectly problems of India.
TABLE OF DISTANCES IN NAUTICAL MILES.
             FROM
TO 
                -
Calcutta.
Colombo.
Bombay.
Singapore.
Hong Kong.
Shanghai.
Yokohama.
Sydney.
London viá Suez ...
7,902
6,702
6,260
8,248
9,688
10,437
11,150
11,538
London viá Panama
17,186
17,133
18,206
15,556
14,116
13,464
12,894
12,484
New York viá Suez
9,795
8,595
8,153
10,141
11,580
12,324
13,042
14,808
New York viá Panamn
14,416
14,363
15,436
12,786
11,346
10,694
9,724
9,714
New Orleans viá Suez
11,138
9,938
9,502
11,484
12,924
13,667
14,386
...
New Orleans viá Panama
13,824
13,771
14,844
12,194
10,754
10,102
9,132
...
Havana viá Suez ...
10,636
9,436
9,000
10,982
12,428
13,165
13,890
...
Havana viá Panama
12,994
12,941
14,014
11,364
9,924
9,272
8,302
...
474DE