INSECTS 



53 



plaining fully the danger and suffering involved in the experiment 

 should it be successful, and then, seeing they were determined, he 

 stated that a definite money compensation would be made them. 

 Both young men declined to accept it, making it, indeed, their sole 

 stipulation that they should receive no pecuniary reward, where- 

 upon Major Reed touched his cap, saying respectfully, 'Gentlemen, 

 I salute you.' Reed's own words in his published account of the 

 experiment on Kissinger are : ' In my opinion this exhibition of 

 moral courage has never been 

 surpassed in the annals of the 

 Army of the United States.' " l 

 * The object of one of the first 

 experiments was to determine 

 whether or not yellow fever could 

 be contracted from clothing worn 

 by yellow fever patients. A small 

 building was constructed the win- 

 dows and doors of which were 

 carefully screened. Into this 

 were brought chests of clothing 

 that had been taken from the 

 beds of patients who had been 

 sick and in some cases had died 

 of yellow fever. Three brave 

 men entered the building, un- 

 packed the boxes, and for twenty 

 nights slept in close contact with 

 the soiled clothing. " To pass 

 twenty nights in a small, ill-ventilated room, with a temperature 

 over ninety, in close contact with the most loathsome articles 

 of dress and furniture, in an atmosphere fetid from their presence, 

 is an act of heroism which ought to command our highest ad- 

 miration and our lasting gratitude." 2 In spite, however, of their 

 unwholesome surroundings, none of the men contracted yellow 



FIG. 36. John R. Kissinger, U.S.A 



Walter Reed and Yellow Fever," by Dr. H. A. Kelly 

 Doubleday, Page & Co. 2 "Walter Reed and Yellow Fever." 



