427 



transmit their infection to their progeny, as the eattletick is supposed to 

 do with regard to Texas fever. The reasons which had induced me to make 

 that suggestion ceased however to exist from the moment that the United 

 States Commission proved that some of the Stegomyias live as many as 

 seventy or more days; and I was not sorry to give up an idea which did 

 not fit readily into the theory. 



Before closing this paper I beg to apologize for occupying your 

 attention with a subject in which there is so much that must be considered 

 as egotistical and personal ; but I have been, in a manner, obliged to do 

 so by the tacit denial of my rights of priority by the Army Board. I trust, 

 however, that the facts which I have recorded will be found of some interest 

 not only for their historical significance, but also as an illustration of the 

 principale that a theory which is thoroughly sound must be susceptible of 

 considerable expansion, within the bounds of logical deductions, without 

 ceasing to yield reliable conclusions. Years may pass before the accuracy of 

 such conclusions receives the sanction of a final and irrefutable 

 confirmation, but if the fundamental theory be really sound, that day will 

 surely come, as has happened in my case. To the talents and skill of the 

 recent investigators the world is certainly indebted for a most remarkable 

 experimental confirmation of most of the above mentioned conclusions of 

 my theory, and in consequence of their experimental results the Havana 

 Sanitary Department was induced to submit to a practical test the same 

 plan which I had previously recommended, with what brilliant results you 

 already know. 



The fact that eonclussion so similar in their essence were reached from 

 two distinct and independent sources of investigation should undoubtedly 

 be considered as a decisive argument by those who still entertain any 

 doubts about the solidity of the whole theory. 



