THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



219 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



The statue of Lavoisier, shown in 

 the frontispiece of this number, was 

 unveiled at Paris on the 27th of July. 

 It stands facing the Rue Tronchet, near 

 the house in which Lavoisier dwelt. The 

 figure, of bronze, stands upon a granite 

 pedestal, ornamented by bas-reliefs rep- 

 resenting Lavoisier before his colleagues 

 at the Academy, and at work in his 

 laboratory. M. Leygues presided at the 

 ceremony, at which the members of the 

 international congress of chemistry were 

 present. In the course of the address 

 written for the occasion M. Berthelot 

 characterized Lavoisier's work as fol- 

 lows: "The labors of Lavoisier are re- 

 lated to a fundamental discovery from 

 which they all spring, namely, the dis- 

 covery of the chemical constitution of 

 matter and of the difference between 

 bodies possessing weight and imponder- 

 able forces — heat, light, electricity — the 

 influence of which extends over these 

 bodies. The discovery of this difference 

 overturned the old ideas handed down 

 from antiquity and held till the end of 

 the last century." Lavoisier was a no- 

 table example of the excellence of scien- 

 tific men in other than scientific fields 

 of activity. He wrote a good book on 

 education, was an efficient officer in a 

 number of public undertakings, and was 

 for some years 'fermier general.' His 

 scientific work is summed up by the in- 

 scription on the pedestal of the monu- 

 ment: 'Fondateur de la chimie mod- 

 erne.' 



There is now evidence that yellow 

 fever, as well as malaria, is caused by 

 inoculation by mosquitoes which serve 

 as the intermediate hosts of the para- 

 sites. Drs. Reed, Carroll, Agramonte 

 and Lazear, who were appointed last 

 summer by the Surgeon-General to in- 

 vestigate infectious diseases in Cuba, 



have in a preliminary report of their 

 work denied that the bacillus icteroides 

 of Sanarelli is the cause of yellow fever. 

 In general they have not found it pres- 

 ent in the blood of yellow fever patients 

 or in the organs of those who have died 

 of the disease, and consider that when 

 present it is a secondary invader. After 

 these results had been reached they test- 

 ed the hypothesis advanced by Dr. Car- 

 los J. Finlay of Havana in 1881 that 

 yellow fever is transmitted from person 

 to person by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes 

 which had bitten fever patients were al- 

 lowed to bite eleven persons. In nine 

 cases no evil results followed, but in two 

 cases, Dr. Carroll himself being one, reg- 

 ular attacks of yellow fever followed. 

 It is true that in these cases there was 

 a possibility of infection from other 

 sources, but since out of 1,400 non-im- 

 mune Americans at the Columbia Bar- 

 racks there were in two months only 

 three cases and since of the three two 

 had been bitten within five days of the 

 commencement of their attacks by con- 

 taminated mosquitoes, the board seems 

 justified in assigning the role of effi- 

 cient cause to the mosquitoes. The pos- 

 itive evidence is increased by the sad his- 

 tory of Dr. Lazear, one of the investi- 

 gating board. Dr. Lazear was one of 

 the nine who had not suffered in the 

 inoculation experiment just described. 

 While working with yellow fever pa- 

 tients he was bitten by a mosquito, 

 which because of the previous experi- 

 ment he did not even attempt to avoid. 

 He was bitten on September 13, and be- 

 came ill on September 17 with the fe- 

 ver, which thereafter ran its course, 

 ending in death. It was not demon- 

 strated that this particular mosquito 

 had previously bitten any yellow fever 

 patient, but of course there was every 

 opportunity for it to do so. Dr. Reed 



