236 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



4; sheets, 6; blankets, 5; pillows, 2; mattresses, 1. These articles had been re- 

 moved from the persons and beds of four patients sick with yellow fever and 

 were very much soiled, as any change of clothing or bed-linen during their 

 attacks had been purposely avoided, the object being to obtain articles as thor- 

 oughly contaminated as possible. 



From Dec. 21, 1900, till Jan. 10, 1901, this building was again occupied by 

 two non-immune young Americans, under the same conditions as the preceding 

 occupants, except that these men slept every night in the very garments worn 

 by yellow fever patients throughout their entire attacks, besides making use ex- 

 clusively of their much-soiled pillow-slips, sheets, and blankets. At the end of 

 twenty-one nights of such intimate contact with these fomites, they also went 

 into quarantine, from which they were released five days later in perfect health. 



From January 11 till January 31, a period of twenty days, 'Building No. 1' 

 continued to be occupied by two other non-immune Americans, who, like those 

 who preceded them, have slept every night in the beds formerly occupied by 

 yellow fever patients and in the night-shirts used by these patients throughout 

 the attack, AWthout change. In addition, during the last fourteen nights of 

 their occupancy of this house they have slept, each night, with their pillows 

 covered with towels that had been thoroughly soiled with the blood drawn from 

 both the general and cajiillary circulation, on the first day of the disease, in the 

 case of a well-marked attack of yellow fever. Notwithstanding this trying 

 ordeal, these men have continued to remain in perfect health. 



The attempt which we have therefore made to infect 'Building No. 1,' and 

 its seven non-immune occupants, dui-ing a period of sixty-three days, has proved 

 an absolute failure. We think we cannot do better here than to quote from the 

 classic work of La Roche.* This author says: "In relation to the yellow fever, 

 we find so many instances establishing the fact of the non-transmissibility of 

 the disease through the agency of articles of the kind mentioned, and of mer- 

 chandise generally, that we cannot but discredit the accounts of a contrary 

 character assigned in medical writings, and still more to those presented on the 

 strength of popular report solely. For if, in a large number of well-authen- 

 ticated cases, such articles have been handled and used with perfect impunity 

 — and that, too, often under circumstances best calculated to insure the effect in 

 question — we have every reason to conclude that a contrary result will not be 

 obtained in other instances of a similar kind; and that consequently the effect 

 said to have been produced by exposure to those articles, must — unless estab- 

 lished beyond the possibility of dovibt — be referred to some other agency." 



The question here naturally arises: How does a house become infected with 

 yellow fever? This we have attempted to solve by the erection at Camp Lazear of 

 a second house, known as 'Building No. 2,' or the 'Infected Mosquito Building.' 

 This was in all respects similar to 'Building No. 1,' except that the door and win- 

 dows were placed on opposite sides of the building so as to give through-and- 

 through ventilation. It was divided, also, by a wire- screen partition, extending 

 from floor to ceiling, into two rooms, 12 x 14 feet and 8 x 14 feet respectively. 

 Whereas, all articles admitted to 'Building No. 1' had been soiled by contact 

 with yellow fever patients, all articles admitted to 'Building No. 2' Avere first 

 carefully disinfected by steam before being placed therein. 



On Dec. 21, 1900, at 11.45 a. m., there were set free in the larger room of 

 this building fifteen mosquitoes — C. fasciatus — which had previously been con- 

 taminated by biting yellow fever patients, as follows: 1, a severe case, on the 

 second day, Nov. 27, 1900, twenty-four days; 3, a well-marked case, on the first 



* R. La Roche: Yellow Fever, Vol. IT, p. 51G, Philadelphia. 



