WALTER REED. 265 



Application was made to General Leonard Wood, the military gov- 

 ernor of Cuba, for permission to conduct experiments on non-immune 

 persons, and a liberal sum of money requested for the purpose of re- 

 warding volunteers who would submit themselves to experiment. It 

 was, indeed, fortunate that the military governor of Cuba was a man 

 who by his breadth of mind and special scientific training could readily 

 appreciate the arguments of Major Eeed as to the value of the proposed 

 work. Money and full authority to proceed were promptly granted, 

 and to the everlasting glory of the American soldier, volunteers from 

 the army offered themselves for experiment in plenty, and with the 

 utmost fearlessness. 



Before the arrangements were entirely completed, Dr. Carroll, a 

 member of the commission, allowed himself to be bitten by a mosquito 

 that twelve days previously had filled itself with the blood of a yellow 

 fever patient. He suffered from a very severe attack, and his was the 

 first experimental case. Dr. Lazear also experimented on himself at 

 the same time, but was not infected. Some days later, while in the 

 yellow fever ward, he was bitten by a mosquito and noted the fact care- 

 full}'. He acquired the disease in its most terrible form and died a 

 martyr to science, and a true hero. No other fatality occurred among 

 the brave men who, in the course of the experiments, willingly exposed 

 themselves to the infection of the dreaded disease. 



A camp was especially constructed for the experiments about four 

 miles from Havana, christened Camp Lazear in honor of the dead com- 

 rade. The inmates of the camp were put into most rigid quarantine 

 and ample time was allowed to eliminate any possibility of the disease 

 being brought in from Havana. The personnel consisted of three 

 nurses and nine non-immunes, all in the military service, and included 

 two physicians. 



From time to time Spanish immigrants, newly arrived, were brought 

 in directly from the immigrant station; a person not known to be im- 

 mune was not allowed to leave camp, or if he did, was forbidded to 

 return. The most complete record was kept of the health of every man 

 to be experimented upon, thus eliminating the possibility of any other 

 disease than yellow fever complicating the case. 



The mosquitoes used were specially bred from the eggs and kept in 

 a building screened by wire netting. When an insect was wanted for 

 an experiment it was taken into a yellow fever hospital and allowed to 

 fill itself with the blood of a patient; afterward at varying intervals 

 from the time of this meal of blood it was purposely applied to non- 

 immunes in camp. In December five cases of the disease were devel- 

 oped as the result of such applications ; in January, three, and in Feb- 

 ruary, two, making in all ten, exclusive of the cases of Drs. Carroll and 

 Lazear. Immediately upon the appearance of the first recognized 

 symptoms of the disease, in any one of these experimental cases, the 

 patient was taken from Camp Lazear to a yellow fever hospital, one 



