OCTOBEh 4, 1007] 



SCIENCE 



453 



and when published reports are so phrased as 

 to make explicit reference of observed items 

 to their proper class, and explicit statement 

 that such and such elements were not deter- 

 mined. W. M. D. 



JAMES CARROLL 



Major James Carroll, Surgeon U. S. A., 

 died at his home in the city of Washington 

 on September 16, after an illness of about 

 seven months. 



Major Carroll was born in England June 

 5, 1854. When about fifteen years of age he 

 emigrated to this country, and on June 9, 

 1874, enlisted in the United States army, and 

 served as private, corporal, sergeant and hos- 

 pital steward from that date to May 21, 1898, 

 when he was appointed an acting assistant 

 surgeon. 



While still a soldier he began the study of 

 medicine at the University of the City of 

 New York during the session 1886-7. After 

 a break of a year he resumed his medical 

 studies in Baltimore at the University of 

 Maryland, 1889-91, and received his degree 

 from that institution. 



He was appointed first lieutenant, assistant 

 surgeon, in the medical corps, October 27, 

 1902, and promoted to the grade of major- 

 surgeon, by special act of congress March 2, 

 1907, on account of his services in connection 

 with the discovery of the mode of transmis- 

 sion of yellow fever, and the courage shown 

 by him in subjecting himself to experiment 

 with a view to demonstrating the method of 

 transmission by a mosquito. 



Doctor Carroll's was the first experimental 

 case of yellow fever. He sufl^ered a very 

 severe attack to which he attributed a heart 

 trouble, which finally caused his death. 



Doctor Carroll's interest in the subject of 

 yellow fever did not cease with the discovery 

 of the method of its transmission, but he con- 

 tinued to make many independent contribu- 

 tions to the literature on the subject. 



The Havana Yellow Fever Commission, ap- 

 pointed upon the recommendation of Surgeon 

 General Sternberg, U. S. A., in 1900, con- 

 sisted of Major Walter Eeed, Surgeon, U. S. 



A.; Dr. James Carroll, Dr. Jesse W. Lazear 

 and Dr. A. Agramonte. The death of Dr. 

 Carroll leaves Dr. Agramonte, a Cuban physi- 

 cian, as the only surviving member of the 

 commission. 



The bacteriological and experimental inves- 

 tigations of the commission were to a large 

 extent conducted by Dr. Carroll. During 

 Major Eeed's absence in the United States 

 the inoculations by means of infected mos- 

 quitoes were begun. 



On August 11, 1900, Dr. Lazear made the 

 first experiment, but nine distinct inocula- 

 tions on persons, including himself and Acting 

 Assistant Surgeon A. S. Pinto, were unsuc- 

 cessful. We know now that these failures 

 were due to two facts — first, that patients 

 after the third day of the disease can not con- 

 vey the infection to the mosquito, and second, 

 that after having bitten a yellow-fever case 

 the mosquito can not transmit the disease 

 until after an interval of at least twelve days. 

 On August 27 a mosquito was applied to Dr. 

 Carroll which happened to fulfil both of these 

 conditions. The result was a very severe at- 

 tack of yellow fever in which for a time his 

 life hung in the balance. 



G. M. S. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Silliman lectures by Professor William 

 Bateson will be given in the Peabody Museum 

 at Yale University on October 8 and the 

 following days. The subject of the course is 

 " The Problems of Genetics." 



The Herter Lectures before the Medical 

 Department of the Johns Hopkins University 

 will be given this session by Edward A. 

 Schafer, LL.D., F.E.S., professor of physi- 

 ology in the University of Edinburgh, at the 

 end of April, 1908. The Turnbull Lectures on 

 poetry will be delivered by Professor A. V. 

 Williams Jackson, of Columbia University, on 

 Persian Poetry, probably in February. 



Professor Otto Pfleiderer, of the Univer- 

 sity of Berlin, began a series of six lectures in 

 German on " The German Philosophy of Re- 

 ligion," at Harvard University, on September 

 30. 



