To Panama and back

An eyewitness travel account recounts a physician’s voyage from the American Midwest to Panama and back, mixing practical travel notes with medical observations. It follows sea passages and stops at ports such as Colón, Port Limón, and Panama City, describes hotels, rail travel across the isthmus, tropical climate and health risks, local customs and entertainments including bullfighting and social banquets, the ruins of earlier canal efforts and contemporary canal works, and participation in a Pan-American medical congress. Interlaced are humorous anecdotes about food, seasickness, and tropical maladies, plus reflections on infrastructure, commerce and daily life during a season of travel.