182 THE YELLOW FEVER CAMPAIGNS 



ANTI - YELLOW FEVER MEASURES L\ BRmSH 

 HONDURAS AND IN THE ADJACENT CENTRAL 

 AMERICAN REFUHLICS 



In the summer of 1905, whilst I was then taking 

 part in the yellow fever campaign in New Orleans, I 

 was asked by the Colonial Office to proceed to Belize 

 to investigate an outbreak of yellow fever there, and 

 to report upon measures to stamp it out and prevent 

 its reappearance. 



I gladly availed myself of the opportimity, and 

 commenced investigations on September 17, 1905. 



My first care w^as to ascertain to w^hat extent the 

 epidemic had gained a foothold, or, in other words, 

 the total number and distribution of the human 

 carriers. I was soon satisfied that the officially re- 

 ported cases did not represent the total cases — that, in 

 other w^ords, a considerable number of " suspects " 

 should have been added to the list. At the same 

 time I hastened to ascertain the extent and distribu- 

 tion in the town of the insect carriers. 1 made at 

 once a stegomyia survey, organising for that purpose 

 small search parties to ascertain accurately the breed- 

 ing places of the stegomyia, and so determine tlie 

 numerical strength of the insect. To this end we 

 made a house-to-house investigation and examined 

 1,342 barrels containing water, many hundreds of kero- 

 sene tins, 489 large w^ooden water- vats, 271 iron water- 

 tanks, 91 wells, and very many other likely places, such 

 as disused canoes, ditclies, pools, crab-holes, etc. This 

 examination revealed the presence of the stegomyia 



