MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD. 



573 



to-day the world is in a fair way to be completely rid of yellow fever, 

 one of the greatest scourges of mankind in warm countries. 



All through the progress of this work Doctor Reed was in constant 

 correspondence with Washington. He returned to the States in 

 October, 1900, to read before the annual meeting of the American 

 Public Health Association the first announcement of the results 

 gained from his first series of experiments, and later returned to 

 Cuba to carry out the second and conclusive series. He wrote me 

 frequently and, of course, corresponded regularly with Surgeon Gen- 

 eral Sternberg, and the Surgeon General and I used to meet after 

 office at the Cosmos Club to compare notes and read to each other 

 the letters we had received from Cuba. One of my most highly treas- 

 ured possessions is a final letter from Reed, written January 13, 

 1901, when he was confident that he had proved his case beyond cavil. 



He said : " Of course, you have already heard from General Stern- 

 berg of our complete success in repeating our former observations. 

 The mosquito theory for the propagation of yellow fever is no longer 

 a theory but an established fact. Isn't it enough to make a fellow 

 feel happy ? Anopheles and Culex are a gay old pair. What havoc 

 they have wrought on our species during the last three centuries ! " 

 and finished by stating that with the aid of antimosquito measures, 

 which he was good enough to say that I had developed, yellow fever 

 would be wiped off the earth. 



The control of yellow fever by antimosquito work was soon dem- 

 onstrated in a very big way. The army of occupation in Cuba took 

 up at once the task of ridding Habana from the disease, and inci- 

 dentally from malaria. How well this was done all the world knows, 

 and the active director of the work, Doctor Gorgas, stepped into the 



light of fame. 



Only a few years later the United States staged a very conclusive 

 demonstration. In the early summer of 1905 yellow fever broke out 

 in a certain quarter of New Orleans. The number of cases rapidly 

 increased and an epidemic apparently comparable with the disastrous 

 one of 1878 had begun to spread. The United States Public Health 

 Service took command of the situation early in June and, under the 

 direction of Dr. J. H. White, carried on a perfectly thorough anti- 

 mosquito campaign. The results were striking. The fever stopped 

 spreading. Very few new cases developed and, comparing the fig- 

 ures of deaths in that year with those of 1878 in New Orleans, there 

 was a plainly convincing saving of 4,000 lives, due to the discovery of 

 Reed and his colleagues. 



It will be unnecessay to carry the story of yellow fever demonstra- 

 tions further. Rio de Janeiro was soon rid of the plague by the 

 intelligent and energetic efforts of Oswaldo Cruz and his colleagues. 

 Admirable work was done in Mexico under the direction of Eduardo 



