Salvador of the Twentieth Century

by Percy F. Martin

The General Direction of Vaccination has its seat in the Capital, and is directed by Dr. Rodolfo B. González. In connection with the Rosáles Hospital an Institution of Vaccination has been established, which is under the direction of Dr. Gustavo Barón. In normal times as many as a thousand tubes of vaccine are prepared monthly. The Institute of Vaccination in San Salvador, I may mention, is the first that has been established in Central America.

The Council, notwithstanding the fact that it receives a large quantity of calf lymph, imports every fortnight further supplies of lymph from France and Switzerland, as a provision against the home supply becoming exhausted through any unforeseen circumstance. In the year 1907 there were vaccinated in the Capital alone 1,597 men and 973 women, while in the Departments there were 4,667 men and 4,295 women, or a total of 11,532 vaccinated in this one year.

If to these numbers are added 1,000 vaccinated by the Travelling Vaccinator of the Department of La Libertad, a total of 12,532 was reached—a figure which will be increased to at least 18,000 if is taken into account the fact that in many of the outlying districts the number of inoculations which were made by special vaccinators have not been accounted for.

In the year 1908 the number of cases was doubled, so it appears that in all the Republic more than 40,000 persons were vaccinated in one year. In the first months of 1910, in which vaccination was enforced with some severity, even in the most remote hamlets, the majority of the inhabitants were vaccinated and revaccinated. In the ports, into which epidemic diseases are more easily introduced by foreign vessels arriving from different infected ports, the Council has under its control several competent medical officers, who examine with the most scrupulous exactness all the steamers, and even the small boats, which arrive. By this means, up till now the much-dreaded yellow fever and bubonic plague, which have attacked many ports of South America, have not reached Salvador.

Apart from the Hospitals, there are several Asylums for the Insane, the Blind and Orphans of both sexes. The inmates receive a thoroughly sound normal or primary education, being taught also carpentry, shoemaking, needlework, and many other useful occupations and trades. Those who desire to study music or electric telegraphy as a profession are permitted, and even encouraged, to do so. These institutions in some cases are under the management of Sisters of Charity, and very well they seem to carry out their merciful duties. The Government supports also an Asylum for the Aged Poor, and a similar institution for orphans, in addition to those which already exist.

One of the most prominent members of the Salvadorean medical profession is Dr. Federico Yúdice, who enjoys an unusually large surgical practice. Dr. Yúdice has studied in Germany, and holds the highest diplomas of the German Faculty of Medicine, as well as in the United States, from which country he also received the most coveted diplomas in the profession. His consulting-rooms are frequently well filled, and his surgery and operating-room are replete with the latest improved surgical apparatus and equipment—in some cases more replete in the possession of such scientific inventions than some of the hospitals of Europe. Although quite a young man, Dr. Yúdice is considered one of the leading physicians of San Salvador, and undoubtedly he has an exceptionally brilliant career before him.

Due to the initiative of Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo, the President, an important and representative Congress of Medical Scientists will assemble in San Salvador in November of this year. Dr. Tomás G. Palomo will be the President of the Congress, Dr. Benjamin Orozco the Vice-President. Among others who will take part in the deliberations are—Dr. José Llerena, Jerónimo Puente, J. Max Olano, Estanislao Van Severen, Enrique Gonzalez S., an eminent surgeon-dentist, and Gustavo S. Barón, who will act as treasurer. Dr. Pedro A. Villacorta, Dr. Miguel Peralta L., and Dr. Rafael V. Castro, will act as joint secretaries.

The ready hospitality which is extended to the stranger sojourning for no matter how short a while in Salvador renders existence there exceptionally agreeable. While, like most Latin-Americans, far from being effusive or indiscriminate in either their friendship or their offers of social entertainment, the Salvadoreans are always pleased to show courtesy and hospitality to those who are recommended or presented to them, and to these fortunate individuals nothing is denied in the way of attention and consideration. San Salvador is especially kind to its foreign visitors, and to all who bear introductions, or who make friends upon their own account, the doors of the Casino Salvadoreño are readily open, this being a club which is well provided with most of the current literature, some of which is in English, and possesses many pleasant reading and writing rooms, as well as the usual complement of French billiard-tables. It is an orderly and well-managed establishment, and most of the better-class Salvadoreans belong to it. A good, although small, library is attached, and this contains some valuable collections of statistical volumes and several works of reference.

San Salvador has been peculiarly unfortunate in regard to the number of serious conflagrations which have at various times afflicted that city, and within the last ten or eleven years no fewer than five such disasters have overtaken it. In the month of November, 1889, the Palacio Nacional was completely destroyed by fire, and, unfortunately, many valuable archives, dating back into the early times of the Spaniards, when Salvador was still a colony, as well as a large number of documents relating to the Federation, were lost. In 1900 a second fire destroyed a large area in the city, wherein were situated many of the principal mercantile houses. In September, 1901, a third visitation of this kind destroyed the handsome building of La Mansión de la Presidencia, as well as the barracks of La Guardia de Honor. In 1903 fire destroyed the entire building of the Casino Salvadoreño; and in March, 1908, the handsome Zapote Barracks were seriously burned; while, as recorded elsewhere, in 1910 the Teatro Nacional, and nearly the whole block of buildings of which it formed part, was entirely gutted.