124 HISTORICAL SURVP^V OF YELLOW FEVER 



or tliat infected mosqiiitos Avere earried away. Accord- 

 ing to l^ancroft tlie disease existed in St. Domingo in 

 173L Old writers upon yellow fe\er frequently refer 

 to the AVest Coast of Africa as being the original 

 source of the disease.^ 



Thus Dr. Chisholm believed that yellow iavcv was 

 first introduced into the West Indies in 171)3, when 

 Grenada became infected from the remarkable ship 

 Haiikcjj, which had come from Bulam in AW^st Africa. 

 On account of this supposed origin of yellow fever it is 

 sometimes called Ikilam fever. F'.A'idence, however, 

 points the other way, — that in fact it was a very preva- 

 lent disease in the New World, stretching from iSlexico 

 down through Central America to Brazil, l^razil appears, 

 then, to haAC been the centre from which it radiated out 

 to the ^Vest Indies. As I have stated before, the early 

 Conquistadores suffered from it, the Latin races of the 

 Old ^^"orld being therefore the first to make its acquaint- 

 ance diu'ing the time they were occupied in pushing 

 civilisation into the then newly disco\ered continent. 



In Cuba yellow fever was probably known as the 

 Pest or Epidemic of Havana as early as 1(120. The 

 first authentic description of the black vomit in 

 Havana was fm'nished by Dr. Thomas Romay in the 

 year 1761. 



In the beginning of the eighteenth century the 

 disease, from its appearance in various parts of Spanish 

 America under the name of vomito pricto, attracted 

 much attention, and it is particularly referred to by the 



' Dr. Le Banif, in interestinfr notes on "History of Yellow Fever," 

 published in the New Orleans Medinil and Surgical Journal, 1905. 



