572 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



of accepted views, and knowing nothing of protozoology and little of 

 bacteriology and laboratory methods, he failed to bring forward any 

 convincing proof, although his experiments were in a high degree 

 suggestive. He had, however, selected the exact species of mosquito 

 which was eventually proved by the United States Army Commission 

 to be the true vector of the disease, namely, Culex fasciatus, as it was 

 then called— the most abundant of the household mosquitoes of Cuba. 

 Sternberg, who had been a member of an American commission to 

 study yellow fever in Cuba at that time, met Finlay and was familiar 

 with his experiments, but neither at that time nor at any other, 

 after the Reed commission results were gained, is there any evidence 

 to show that Sternberg was at all favorably impressed by Finlay's 

 theory. The fact, however, that Finlay's ideas were ultimately proved 

 to be true and that his experiments failed only in detail and that he 

 selected the exact species of mosquito as the probable carrier of the 

 disease, entitled him to great credit, and he is to-day acclaimed 

 throughout all Latin America as the real hero of the mosquito yellow- 

 fever discovery. With this, however, North America and most of the 

 rest of the world does not hold, since he did not prove his case. 



Reed, knowing Finley's theory and filled with enthusiasm over 

 the results of Ross's investigation and those of the Italians, went to 

 Cuba with the determination to give the mosquito idea a thorough 

 test. Lazear I knew from calls which he had made at my office with 

 Thayer to find out what I knew about the malaria mosquitoes ; and 

 before they went to Cuba on this mission, Reed and Carroll spent 

 some time in the Bureau of Entomology studying Culex fasciatus 

 and learning to differentiate it from other mosquitoes that they were 

 likely to meet with in Habana. 



The story of their work for the next tw T o years is known to all the 

 world. By a series of most carefully guarded experiments on vol- 

 unteering American soldiers — experiments which the physicians of 

 Habana, experienced in every phase of yellow fever, were invited 

 to view and to criticize — they succeeded in showing that the current 

 idea that the fever is carried by infected clothing, bedding, and other 

 articles was utterly wrong, and that it is carried solely by the bite 

 of the common house mosquito of tropical America, Stegomyia 

 fasciata. 2 Announcements of their results were made in two papers 

 at intervals of a year, and while the first was received with some 

 doubt hy the London Lancet, the second was so conclusive, although 

 wonderfully modest and matter of fact, that the acceptance of the 

 result was general and enthusiastic. Later work by others only 

 confirmed the conclusions reached by Reed and his colleagues, and 



2 Now known as Aedes caJopus or Aedes argenteus or, strictly, Aedes aegypti. 



