JAMES CARROLL. 2C>5 



the great yellow fever question ; and thus when, in 1900, an 

 Army Medical Commission was appointed to go to Cuba and 

 investigate the nature and transmission of this scourge of cen- 

 turies, Reed was made Chairman with Carroll as second in com- 

 mand. 



Carroll arrived in Cuba on June 25, 1900, and shortly after- 

 ward the preliminary experiments were begun. Early in the 

 course of the work it became evident to the members of the 

 Commission that the proposed line of work could not be carried 

 on without experiments upon human beings and they agreed 

 that the initial experiment must be made upon one of them- 

 selves. Carroll volunteered for this service, and he always said 

 that the proudest circumstance of his life was that he was the 

 first person to succumb to mosquito inoculation. He had a 

 severe attack of the disease, during which his life was despaired 

 of, and although he recovered, it was with an organic heart 

 lesion which ultimately caused his death. 



Carroll's services upon the Yellow Fever Commission, apart 

 from the inestimable act of self-sacrifice just mentioned, were 

 of the most essential character, and it is not at all too much to 

 say that without his native force and perseverance, guided by 

 his scientific knowledge and training, the work of the Commis- 

 sion could scarcely have been carried to a conclusion. Circum- 

 stances obliged Dr. Reed to leave Carroll in charge of the pre- 

 liminary experiments while he himself returned to the United 

 States on business connected with them, and it was entirely 

 through Carroll's exertions at this time that they were brought 

 to a satisfactory conclusion and the demonstration completed by 

 the time Dr. Reed was again in Cuba. Again, in February, 

 1901, when the fact that yellow fever is transmitted by the 

 Stegomyia calopus was definitely proved, and Reed went home, 

 Carroll remained behind for several weeks to determine one or 

 two additional points necessary to the perfect completion of 

 their experiments. His most valuable, as well as his most inde- 

 pendent service, of this description, however, was rendered in 

 the following summer, when he returned to Cuba in order to 

 undertake another line of experiments, intended to determine 

 whether the specific agent of yellow fever is contained in the 



