BEAUPERTHUY^S OBSERVATIONS 25 



corpuscles, causes their rupture . . . and facilitates the 

 mixing of the colouring matter with the serum. 



" The agents of this yellow-fever infection are of a 

 considerable niunber of species, not all being of equally 

 lethal character. The zancudo hobo with legs striped 

 with white, may be regarded as more or less the house- 

 haunting kind. 



" Remittent, intermittent, and pernicious fevers, 

 just like yellow fever, have as their cause an animal 

 or vegeto-animal virus, the introduction of which into 

 the human body is brought about by inoculation. 



" Intermittent fevers are grave in proportion to the 

 prevalence of mosquitos, and disappear or lose nmch 

 of their severity in places which, by reason of their 

 elevation, have few of these insects. 



" The expression ' AMnged Snakes ' employed by 

 Herodotus is peculiarly applicable to the mosquito, 

 and the result of its bite on the human organism. 



" IMarshes do not communicate to the atmosphere 

 anything more than humidity, and the small amount 

 of hydrogen they give off does not cause in man the 

 sliglitest indisposition in equatorial and inter-tropical 

 regions renowned for their unhealthiness. iVor is it 

 the putrescence of the xvater that makes it unhealthij, but 

 the presence of mosquitos.'''' 



Readers will agree that perhaps never in the history 

 of medicine has such a carefully-thought-out prognosti- 

 cation received such remarkable scientific confirmation. 

 Beauperthuy made other communications both to the 

 Gaceta OJicial de Cumand and to the Academic des 

 Sciences. 



He studied, amongst other diseases, T.eprosy. For 



