VTTI CONQUEST OF DISEASE 229 



and devotion of the soldier, he risked and lost his life 

 to show how a fearful pestilence is communicated and 

 how its ravages may be prevented." 



Two private soldiers volunteered their services for 

 experimental purposes, though they were warned of the 

 danger and suffering probably involved. When both 

 made it a stipulation that they should receive no 

 pecuniary reward, Dr. Reed touched his cap and said 

 respectfully, " Gentlemen, I salute you." For one of 

 the first experiments, three brave men slept for twenty 

 nights in a small ill-ventilated room screened from 

 mosquitoes but containing furniture and clothing which 

 had been in close contact with yellow-fever patients, 

 some of whom had died from the disease. None of the 

 men contracted yellow fever, thus indicating the disease 

 was not of a contagious nature. The next experiment 

 was to divide a similar building by a wire screen, and to 

 admit mosquitoes which had bitten yellow-fever patients 

 into the section on one side only of the screen. One of 

 the soldiers, John J. Moran, entered this section a few 

 minutes later and allowed these mosquitoes to bite him. 

 He had a sharp attack of yellow fever, while three 

 soldiers on the other side of the screen, being protected 

 from mosquito bites, remained in perfect health ; it 

 had been demonstrated that the scourge of the tropics 

 was conveyed by the agency of a mosquito. 



In the same year the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine sent Dr. H. E. Durham and Dr. Walter Myers 

 to Para to study yellow fever there. Both fully under- 

 stood the dangers to which they would be exposed and 

 the risks they ran, but they decided to take the risks 

 and do the work that came to their hand. Both con- 

 tracted the disease, and Myers died from it a victim 

 to his love of science and humanity on January 20, 



