PUBLIC HEALTH 



15 



there than in the United States. Rio de Janeiro was once a 

 hot-bed for yellow fever, but it too yielded to the destruction 

 of mosquitoes and the screening of patients, till after a six 

 years' fight, the fever vanished. Still more remarkable are 

 the results accomplished in the Panama Canal Zone under 

 the direction of Colonel Gorgas. Here the warfare against 

 yellow fever has gone hand in hand with anti-malarial work 



Fio. 5. Distribution of the Yellow-fever Mosquito in the United States. 



and the isthmus has been transformed from a veritable 

 death-trap to a condition which compares favorably with 

 that of any region on earth. 



Our own country has suffered from yellow fever in the 

 past, mainly in the south, but extending to southern Illinois 

 in 1878, to Philadelphia in the terrible epidemic of 1793, and 

 even to Boston and into interior New England towns in the 

 earlier days. 



Yellow fever no longer causes serious concern to residents 

 of any part of the United States, or, for that matter, to 

 those of most parts of the American tropics. Most of us can 

 recall very clearly in the not far distant past, however, the 

 terror and demoralization which accompanied its periodical 

 appearance in our southern ports. The yellow-fever mos- 

 quito is still abundant and widely distributed throughout 

 the southeastern states (Fig. 5) and sometimes becomes 

 temporarily established further north during the summer. 



