Biology and Medicine 451 



by a U. S. Army Commission appointed by Surgeon-General 

 Sternberg in 1900, during our occupation of Cuba. The 

 commission consisted of three Americans, with Walter Reed 

 in charge, assisted by James Carroll and Jesse Lazear and 

 a Cuban, Aristides Agramonte. Two well built houses were 

 erected in the same situation, and fully screened. In one of 

 these soiled bedding, brought direct from yellow fever patients 

 in Havana, was placed, and here a number of men lived for 

 several weeks without a single case of yellow fever developing 

 among them. In the other house were two rooms separated 

 only by a mosquito proof screen. One of these rooms was 

 kept free from mosquitoes, while in the other were placed 



'fiH^ 



CARROLL, LAZEAR AND HEED 



Members of the U. S. Yellow Fever Commission, which demonstrated 

 the role of mosquitoes in the carriage of yellow fever. 



Courtesy of the U. 8. Bureau of Entomology. 



mosquitoes which had bitten yellow fever patients. Among 

 the men occupying the former no case of the disease devel- 

 oped, while one-half of those in the latter room developed the 

 disease. In another experiment seven men were bitten by in- 

 fected mosquitoes contained in a glass jar, and five of them 

 contracted the disease. The subjects of these experiments 

 were volunteers, members of the Commission themselves, 

 U. S. soldiers and three Spaniards. Doctor Lazear died of the 

 fever, as the result of an accidental bite by an infected 

 mosquito. Dr. Carroll, contracted the disease, as the result 

 of his experiments, and while he recovered from the fever, 

 his death, four years later, was probably indirectly due to 

 this attack. The first soldier who volunteered was John R. 



