COXTROL WORK IN MEXICO 435 



MOBTALITY FROM YELLOW FeVER IX RiO DE JANEIRO FROM 1872 TO AUGUST, 1909. 



WORK IN VERA CRUZ AND MEXICO GENERALLY. 



The President of the Superior Board of Health of the Republic of Mexico, 

 Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, was one of the first to grasp the importance of the mos- 

 quito discoveries of the American Army Board, and one of the first to make an 

 effort to turn them to account. As elsewhere, he met with conservatism and a 

 certain amount of disbelief, but it was not long before he succeeded in establish- 

 ing an anti-mosquito service for practically all of the towns in which yellow fever 

 appeared to be endemic, and devoted especial attention to the larger sea-ports 

 most frequently entered by foreign vessels. In 1893 the disease appeared in epi- 

 demic form in several cities of the Gulf States of Mexico and spread to some 

 interior cities as well, such as San Luis Potosi and some in the State of Nuevo 

 Leon. By the aid of strong executive orders on the part of President Diaz, the 

 Superior Board of Health was able to take action in all of the States except one, 

 and was able to arrest the epidemic. The plan of campaign was based upon the 

 mosquito doctrine, and the measures involved the isolation of patients, the 

 thorough disinfection of dwellings by sulphur dioxide, the drainage of swamps, 

 covering of drinking-water reservoirs, and the use of petroleum. 



In the course of this work and that which followed, taking Vera Cruz to be 

 the oldest and most permanent focus of yellow fever in the Mexican Republic, 

 and assuming that all the epidemics had found their origin in that place, the 

 principal attention of the Superior Board of Health Avas devoted to that city. 

 The town was divided into four districts, each of which was placed under the 

 charge of an experienced physician, and each of these had first-class sanitary 

 agents. Subordinate to these latter, second-class agents were appointed, and a 

 certain number of laborers were added. As a result of this effective ogamiza- 

 tion, Carrol], writing his chapter on yellow fever for Osier's Modern Medicine at 

 the close of 1906, was able to make the following statement : " In Mexico yellow 

 fever has been eradicated from its endemic focus at Vera Cruz through the 

 able efforts of Eduardo Liceaga, the President of the Superior Board of Health, 

 whose complete grasp of the problem and whose enlightened and energetic action 

 has added support to the mosquito doctrine, and would have controlled the dis- 

 ease absolutely if the same means of enforcement were available in Mexico as in 

 Cuba in 1901." 

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