GORGAS — NOBLE. 617 



ary 6, 1901, in a paper read before the Pan-American Congress at 

 Havana, a skeptical world was told that the theory of Finlay was 

 a proven fact. There were many who questioned the findings of the 

 Reed Board, but their experiment had been so carefully controlled 

 and conducted with such mathematical precision that those who 

 questioned succeeded in only confirming the accuracy of the findings. 

 The elimination of yellow fever could now be undertaken on a definite 

 basis, that of the control of Stegomyia breeding and reducing the 

 Stegomyia index below a point capable of supporting an epidemic. 

 Here was the opportunity that General Gorgas had been looking for, 

 and hoping for, for years. 



The eradication of the disease was simple in theory, but in reality, 

 a task of magnitude. It meant house to house inspection, the loca- 

 tion of all breeding places, the listing for future reference, of all 

 cisterns, tanks, wells, water-barrels, fillers, water jars, in fact every 

 container that would hold water and in which Stegomyia would 

 breed. It meant the mosquito-proofing or the destruction of all pos- 

 sible breeding places. There were no trained inspectors for the work. 

 They must be trained, while on the job. These inspectors were not 

 kindly received; they were looked upon with suspicion, and their 

 presence was resented. They had to fight ignorance and prejudice 

 and meet the hostility of the householder with forbearance, tact, and 

 judgment, a trying and thankless task. 



The containers were found; the cisterns, tanks, wells, etc., either 

 destroyed or made mosquito proof. Houses had to be fumigated to 

 kill infected mosquitoes, for the Stegomyia is a long-lived insect 

 and once infected is infectious to man for as long as she lives. The 

 task was accomplished; yellow fever was eliminated from Havana. 

 The last case was reported on September 28, 1901. 



Malaria was a disease that also took a large toll from those living 

 in certain sections of Havana. The fact recently proven that certain 

 of the Anophelene mosquitoes were responsible for the transmission 

 of the malarial parasite from man to man was utilized. So hand 

 in hand with the elimination of yellow fever from Havana went the 

 reduction in the incidence of malaria. The measures against Ano- 

 pheles finally reduced the malarial index to an almost negligible 

 quality, and made healthful areas of what for generations had been 

 uninhabitable. 



The work of General Gorgas at Havana was so notable that Con- 

 gress showed the appreciation of the whole country, when on March 

 9, 1903, an act was passed promoting him to be a colonel and Assis- 

 tant Surgeon General. Having completed his work in Havana he 

 was assigned to duty as chief surgeon of the Department of the East, 

 with station at Governors Island, and remained there until he was 

 appointed chief sanitary officer of the Panama Canal by President 



