REED'S DISCOA'ERY 131 



fifteen days before being inoculated, and had no other 

 possible exposure, the case is as clear as the sun at 

 noonday, and sustains brilliantly and conclusively our 

 conclusions. Thus, just eighteen days from the time 

 we began our experimental work, we have suc- 

 ceeded in demonstrating this mode of propagation of 

 the disease, so that the most doubtful and sceptical 

 must yield. Rejoice with me, sweetheart, as aside 

 from the antitoxin of diphtheria and Koch's discovery 

 of the tubercle bacillus, it will be regarded as the 

 most important piece of work, scientifically, during 

 the nineteenth century. I do not exaggerate, and I 

 could shout for joy that heaven has permitted me to 

 establish this wonderful way of propagating yellow 

 fever." 



Later, in another letter to his wife, he wrote : 



" Ah ! wonderful is nature, and I thank God that 

 He has allowed poor unworthy me to look a little 

 way into this secret. Six months ago, when we 

 landed on this island, absolutely nothing was known 

 concerning the propagation and spread of yellow fever 

 — it was all an unfathomable mystery — but to-day the 

 curtain has been drawn, its mode of propagation is 

 established, and we know that a case minus mosquitos 

 is no more dangerous than one of chills and fever I 

 Hurrah ! " 



Of course, as will always happen, there were some 

 sceptics who belittled the experiments, but of all the 

 objections, perhaps the most naive were those raised 

 by a doctor, who wTote : '* It would be dreadful if 

 after all the years of disinfection that his Service had 



