425 



do not come within the scope of the programme set down by me in 1899. 

 If this be so, am I not right in assuming that, if my plan had been carried 

 into effect by the military government at that time, Cuba might have been 

 rid of its inveterate enemy, the yellow fever, two years before the arrival 

 of the United States Military Yellow Fever Commision in Cuba? The man 

 who coiüd do it was already here; and you may be sure that if the 

 experiment had been entrusted to Mayor Gorgas, unconvinced though he 

 was at that time, he would have displayed the same earnestness of purpose 

 and special talents for planning out the best system of attack and defense 

 against the mosquito which he did two years later, with the brilliant results 

 which have earned for him world-wide renown. He would have acquainted 

 himself with the methods which have been most successful in fighting the 

 mosquito pest in the United States — petroleum for destroying the larvae 

 and the pyrethrum fumes for destroying the winged insect. He 

 would have formed his mosquito brigades and his squads for placing 

 mosquito-proof screen upon every door and window of the sick- 

 room, as well as in the yellow fever department of every hospital. As the 

 propagation of the disease would show signs of decreasing, his faith in the 

 method, and consequently in the theory, would have become strengthened, 

 and final success would have been assured. Success obtained in tins manner 

 would have been a great loss to science, it is true, since the crucial 

 experiments of the United States Yellow Fever Commission might in that 

 case have been omitted. From the sanitarian's standpoint, however, the 

 result would perhaps have been considered more satisfactory, inamuch as 

 400 lives could have been saved in 1899 and 1900. 



The scientist's point of view, in these matters, is quite different from 

 that of the sanitarian. Science is insatiable, and will go to very great 

 lengths in the hope of clearing up a doubt which seems to lie within its 

 grasp; while the sanitarian's idealj is satisfied when his main object has 

 been attained, namely, the protection of human life and health against 

 disease. It is wonderful to reflect how little that would satisfy the scientist 

 we know regarding cowpox, after handling it and experimenting with it 

 during one hundred years. Do we even know, for certain, what relation it 

 bears to smallpox, or the nature of the germ which it contains? Yet the 

 sanitarian is satisfied with the certainty that it protects against smallpox 

 and that millions of lives have been saved through it. To my mind, the great 

 merit of the work done by the United States Yellow Fever Commission 

 consists in its having accurately defined the danger line, beyond which 

 there is a risk of producing severe or fatal experimental cases when non- 

 immunes are inoculated with mosquitoes whose contamination is more than 

 ten days old. I was struck by the wisdom of a recommendation not to go 

 beyond this limit, emanating from a high authority in the United States, 

 and which was recently shown to me. Enough is already known on that 

 particular point without taking any further risks of producing fatal experi- 



