470 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



number of copies bought for the use of the Army surgeons, and there 

 seems no doubt that it was published at a psychological moment. Just 

 before this book was published the Century Magazine published an 

 article of mine entitled " Malaria and Certain Mosquitoes " (April, 

 1901). 



There was one rather unfortunate episode connected with the pub- 

 lication of the book. It had not been out two days before I was told 

 by a friend that Dr. Walter Reed's friends felt hurt by the way I 

 had told the yellow-fever story. I had often talked with General 

 Sternberg during the progress of the work of the Yellow Fever 

 Commission in Habana. In fact, we met almost daily at the Cosmos 

 Club, and he told me of his latest news from Reed or I told him of 

 some letter that I had received from him. I thought that I was famil- 

 iar with the situation, and stated in the book that the Commission 

 had been appointed by General Sternberg and instructed by him to 

 investigate the disease from the mosquito standpoint. 



It seems that this was not the case. Their instructions were general 

 and not specific. The mnsquitO' investigation was undertaken on 

 Reed's sole initiative. As a matter of fact, before going to Cuba for 

 their work, Reed and Lazear spent some time in my office studying 

 mosquitoes in order that they might most easily identify the old 

 " Ciilex fasciafiis" with which Carlos Finlay of Habana had done 

 his earlier work ; and during their investigations Reed frequently 

 wrote me and sent me mosquitoes for examination. 



When I learned that my phraseology had been criticised, I at once 

 called on Reed and found him in an office in the Army Medical 

 Museum. He was rather solemn, though perfectly courteous and 

 friendly, and when 1 had made my ex])lanation he said " That is how 

 I thought it happened, but as a matter of fact I went into this line 

 of work without instructions." And he went on to tell me that he 

 had been doing some work at Johns Hopkins University and had 

 often talked with W. S. Thayer who had visited Italy and studied 

 the Anoi)heles-malaria work there and had therefore become anxious 

 to do experimental work with yellow fever and mosquitoes. 



I did the best I coukl under the circumstances, and wrote an article 

 which was pul)lished in the American monthly Review of Reviews 

 for August, T90T, and which was entitled " Mosquitoes as Transmit- 

 ters of Disease." In this article I omitted all reference to instruc- 

 tions from the Surgeon General's Office and gave to Major Reed the 

 whole credit for the inauguration of the work. I followed this with 

 another article " Yellow Fever and Mosquitoes," in the Century 

 Magazine for October, 1903. 



