192 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



me that this mosquito had been present at Orizaba only during the 

 past few years. It had evidently been l)rought up from lower eleva- 

 tions on railway trains and had established itself at first near the 

 railway station and gradually spread out into the city, breeding in 

 domestic water receptacles as is the custom of this species. 



Before leaving the City of Mexico I had an interview with Dr. 

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

 whom I ha^ met the previous year at a Pan-American sanitary con- 

 gress at Washington. Doctor Liceaga had been among the first to 

 accept the conclusions of the United States Yellow Fever Commission 

 regarding the sole instrumentality of Acdes aegypti as the vector of 

 this disease. He told me of his widespread plans to control this 

 mosquito, and enumerated the number of inspectors which were 

 employed by his department at the different points in the yellow fever 

 zone. I searched for such inspectors on my trip, but found none. At 

 Orizaba I mentioned to a prominent physician the fact that Doctor 

 Liceaga had told me that there were i8 inspectors em]3loyed at that 

 place, and, after inquiry, he finally found a friend who had seen one 

 Indian with a quart kerosene can and an official badge on his som- 

 brero. It seemed to me that, although Doctor Liceaga's plans were 

 sound, officialism in at least certain parts of the republic must have 

 been devoted largely to the drawing of salaries. I was told that 

 Herrera did not dare to leave the City of Mexico for fear that when 

 he returned some one else would be holding his position ; and my 

 informant suggested that, although Doctor Liceaga was the personal 

 physician and warm friend of President Porfirio Diaz, a similar fear 

 held him to his post in the city and prevented inspection tours. 



The result of the investigation of the distribution of the yellow 

 fever mosquito justified the conclusion previously reached that it 

 breeds throughout the year in only tropical, subtropical, and lower 

 Lower Austral life zones. 



This was the year of the yellow fever outbreak at Laredo, Texas, 

 and Nueva Laredo just across the Rio Grande in Mexico. Although 

 it was five years after the demonstration of the sole carriage of yel- 

 low fever by Acdes aegypti (then known as Stcgomyia fasciata), I 

 realized that should I return by land 1 would be quarantined at the 

 Mexican border, and I therefore took passage from Vera Cruz to 

 New York by sea. I have elsewhere told of our stop at Havana and 

 of my call on Dr. Juan Guiteras at Las Animas Hospital, and of the 

 uj^-to-date policy of the Cubans, in contrast to the reactionary policy 

 of the Texans, in their thorough acceptance of the truth of the 

 findings of Reed, Carroll, and Lazear. 



