CHAPTER VIII 



YELLOW FEVER 



AMONG the necessities of modern civilization, 

 gold, rubber, and oil stand out pre-eminently, 

 and each is associated, at any rate in South America 

 and Africa, with countless tragedies and innumerable 

 deaths. West Africa, fertile and productive almost 

 beyond imagination, has long held the sinister and 

 ghastly title of "The White Man's Grave," and though 

 it is far from being the death-trap that it was thirty 

 years ago, yet it is still true that workers there are 

 subject to many dangers and diseases, little known 

 or appreciated at home. Nor is West Africa unique 

 in combining productiveness and death. " Yellow 

 Jack" has been the dreaded foe of the Latin 

 Americas, the South-East American Atlantic sea- 

 board, and the West Indies, for more than three 

 centuries ; nor has it been unknown in the European 

 ports associated by commerce with those countries, 

 for the coast towns of Spain, more particularly, have 

 suffered from outbreaks from time to time in the past. 

 Even in England outbreaks have occurred, though 

 these have been confined chiefly to the ships con- 

 taining the insect known as Stegomyiajasciata, which 

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