A Plausible Method of Vaccination against Yellow Fever l) 



At this moment, when, a considerable number of the United States 

 Army are preparing to land in Cuba, I consider it my duty to call the 

 attention of the medical profession to a method of vaccination that I devised 

 some six years ago, when I lie first news of the discovery of Behring and 

 Kitasato as to the immunizing properties of the serum of immune animals 

 became known in Havana. The principle of my method leaves out of 

 consideration the precise germ to which yellow-fever infection may be 

 attributed, and also my own personal views concerning its transmission 

 through the culex mosquito. It is, therefore, to be hoped that divergence of 

 opinions on these particulars will not interfere witli a fair trial of my 



plan, which, as will be seen, involves no greater risk than the tii honored 



operation of the arm-to-arm vaccination with humanized cowpox. 



On comparing dates I fancy that I may have been the first to apply 

 the principle of the discovery of Behring and Kitasato to the human 

 subject. It occurred in this manner: In July, 1892, having in my charge a 

 case of yellow fever, which from the early manifestation of albuminuria 

 and the severity of the initial symptoms threatened to be a severe one, and 

 believing that my own serum might possess immunizing properties, 1 

 applied to my left forearm an asceptic blister and, on the fourth day of 

 the disease, injected some of the serum into my patient. Of course none of 

 the usual measures were omitted in the treatment; but, somehow, I had 

 reason to think that the serum-injeetion contributed toward the cure; ami, 

 in August, 1892, I reported the case before the Havana Academy oí Medi- 

 cine, where it was favorably commented upon. Two other curative attempts, 

 however, in which the serum was .somewhat tardily employed, proved un- 

 successful, and I thereafter decided to use it only as a preventive measure. 

 This I did upon 13 artillerymen shortly after their arrival from Spain. 

 Four were inoculated in November, 1893, four in February, 1894, 3 in 

 June, 1894, and 2 in February, 1895. Up to the middle of 1895, none of 

 them had been attacked with yellow fever, although their companions in 

 the same barracks suffered as usual from the infection. 



My choice of the blister-serum of a person recently recovered from a 



1) Reprinted from The Philadelphia Medical Journal, June 11, 1898. 



