April 18, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



373 



science and almost at the hour when, in com- 

 pany with two other workers, Major Bowman, 

 Canadian Army Medical Corps and Captain 

 Conner, Australian Army Medical Corps, he 

 had completed the discovery of what is very 

 probably indeed the causative germ of this 

 influenza epidemic. 



A preliminary note regarding this germ was 

 published by these doctors on December 14, 

 1918, in the British Medical Journal, and thus 

 Major Graeme Gibson's work takes precedence 

 over later publications. At the time, however, 

 the proof of the discovery was not complete. 

 It has now been completed, as we undei-stand; 

 and Major Gibson's death furnishes a part of 

 the evidence. His eagerness and enthusiasm 

 led him to work so hard that he finally fell a 

 victim to the very virulent strains of the 

 germ with which he was experimenting. He 

 himself caught the influenza, and pneumonia 

 followed. 



The germ belongs to the order of filter- 

 passers and is grown by the Noguchi method. 

 It is reported that monkeys have been infected 

 with it quite easily, and have developed at- 

 tacks producing small hemorrhages in the 

 limgs a soil quite suitable for the reception 

 of the pneumococcus. The chain of evidence 

 thus seems to be very strong. Further, we 

 understand that the germ closely resembles 

 that described by Captain Wilson in the 

 British Medical Journal a few weeks ago. 

 Thus Captain Wilson's work seems to confirm 

 the work of Major Graeme Gibson and his 

 colleagues. 



It is interesting to note that this work, 

 which has had such fatal consequences for one 

 of the party, has been conducted by three Army 

 doctors, a member of the British forces, a 

 member of the Canadian, and a member of 

 the Australian. The directors of the Medical 

 Service in France deserve the greatest credit, 

 we learn, for the splendid support tliey have 

 given these workers, while the Medical Re- 

 search Committee, working with the Army 

 authorities, has rendered invaluable help. 



Attention has been so firmly fi-xcd in these 

 last months upon influenza that an interesting 

 event in the medical world has more or less 



escaped attention. This is the description by 

 Professor Noguchi of a new germ in con- 

 nection with yellow fever. 



That disease has for long furnished a sub- 

 ject of discussion, because doubt existed as to 

 its exact causation. Dr. Xoguchi states that 

 the organism discovered by him belongs to 

 the class known as spirochetes, of which the 

 spirochete of syphilis and that of relapsing 

 fever are other members. 



If the discovery is confirmed it will add an- 

 other link to the wonderful chain of dis- 

 coveries forged in connection with this disease. 

 The fever was first described in Barbados in 

 1647. Its dreadful virulence soon earned it 

 its evil reputation, and this virulence became 

 a matter of world-wide concern when in the so- 

 called " great period " of the fever it visited 

 Cadiz in five epidemics, Malaga, Lisbon, 

 Seville, Barcelona, Palma, Gibraltar and other 

 European towns. At Lisbon in 1857 some 

 6,000 jjersons died in a few weeks. 



The fever remained a mystery up till about 

 1881, when Dr. Charles Finlay, of Havana, 

 propounded the idea that mosquitoes carried 

 the infection. The view found small support 

 at first, but later Ross's work on malaria re- 

 awakened interest in it. Then came the 

 Spanish-American war and the appointment of 

 a commission by the American government 

 to investigate Finley's theory. The workers 

 nominated were Walter Reed, James Carroll, 

 A. Agramonte, and Lazear. They began by 

 collecting the suspected mosquitoes, allowing 

 them to feed on yellow fever patients, and 

 then submitting themselves to the bites. 

 Their labors were crowned with immediate 

 success, though lives of great value were hero- 

 ically sacrificed. It was proved that the mos- 

 quito Stegomyia fasciata is the agent of in- 

 fection, that the virus of the disease is present 

 in the blood during the first days of infection, 

 and that '" the germ is so small that it can 

 pass through a Chamberland filter." Infection 

 could not be produced till after several days 

 from the time when the mosquito had bitten 

 the yellow fever patient, so that it was evident 

 that the germ underwent some change in the 

 body of its insect host. 



