From: nebusj-@-rpi-.edu   
      
   	While the French effort to dig a canal through the isthmus   
   of Panama is often dismissed as an inefficinet, corrupt, or useless   
   endeavor, in fact the work done was quite good, and most of the   
   equipment purchased was of quality high enough -- and stored well   
   enough -- to be used in the American project a generation later.   
   In addition, French topological and geological surveys proved time   
   and again to be excellent references.  While the French project on   
   the canal was launched with inadequate planning for the problems of   
   handling flodding of the Chagres river and of the prevention of   
   yellow fever and malaria, the sketch for a Chagres plan was available   
   and no one in the 1880s understood the tropical diseases involved.   
      
   --   
   								Joseph Nebus   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)