Man's Mortal Enemies 23 



Caribbean. In 1801, Napoleon sent General Leclere with 

 25,000 men to Haiti to put down the revolt of the negroes 

 led by Toussaint I'Ouverture. The ill-equipped negroes were 

 no match for the French troops and were easily defeated and 

 driven into the interior. But then, yellow fever broke out, 

 22,000 Frenchmen died, and the 3,000 survivors evacuated 

 the island in 1803. Thus, the Republic of Haiti was born, 

 thanks to the mosquito! 



The United States has not been free from yellow fever, 

 although this disease, unlike malaria, has never become es- 

 tablished here. Sailing ships from the West Indies often 

 brought yellow fever into North American ports, particularly 

 in colonial days. Cities as far north as Portland, Maine, have 

 had yellow fever epidemics. In 1793, an epidemic killed 10 

 percent of the population of Philadelphia, and the disease re- 

 turned six years later. A severe epidemic swept Memphis, 

 Charleston, and Galveston in 1878, and in 1905 New Or- 

 leans felt the fury of a sudden attack. 



During the Spanish-American War, our troops in Cuba 

 encountered yellow fever as well as malaria, and at that time 

 the cause of the disease was unknown. Because of the seri- 

 ousness of the disease, something had to be done, and the 

 Yellow Fever Commission was organized to track down the 

 unknown killer. As was related previously, Walter Reed 

 and his co-workers proved — but not until after the war was 

 over — that the Aedes aegypti mosquito was the offender. 

 This information came in very handy later when the Army 

 engineers set to work to build a canal across the Isthmus of 

 Panama. The French had made earlier attempts to build 

 a canal there, but had to give up their efforts when yellow 

 fever got in its deadly work. To the Americans, it was ob- 

 vious that the first task was the elimination of the mosquito. 



