Makch 9, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



375 



one, too, will be the passEige and enforce- 

 ment of laws insuring the proper sanitation 

 of our cities, this being a matter which 

 offers so many other advantages in addi- 

 tion to the removal of yellow fever, as to 

 make it appear to my mind the most im- 

 perative need that confronts the south as 

 a whole, and the really proper solution of 

 the entire matter. 



14. It would be a false claim, if set up 

 by any of our great northern cities, that 

 they intelligently got rid of yellow fever, 

 for it is a fact which must be apparent to 

 all of us, that they did nothing of the kind. 

 They intelligently provided themselves 

 with municipal utilities which appealed 

 strongly to their ideas of creature comfort 

 and general cleanliness, and which, inci- 

 dentally and entirely accidentally, elim- 

 inated the mosquito at the same time. 

 These public utilities were a thoroughly 

 controlled water supply, sewerage, drain- 

 age and pavements, and these four, not 

 one, but all of them, were essential to the 

 end attained. 



We may rid the city of New Orleans of 

 yellow fever, but we shall never rid it of its 

 susceptibility to that disease until these 

 four requirements are complied with, and 

 the possession of these public utilities will 

 also do away with many of the other 'ills 

 that flesh is heir to.' 



It is irrational to go on, year after year, 

 fighting only the infected mosquito, when 

 we can, with a little more trouble, destroy 

 all mosquitoes once and for all. To put 

 the matter plainly to the business man who 

 is, after all, the court of last resort, make 

 an investment now in good health, and it 

 will pay you enormous dividends in in- 

 creased business, in reduced loss of time by 

 yourself and your employees, and in that 

 priceless boon that comes only to the man 

 free from any taint of disease— the one 

 only thing that makes our north superior 

 to our south— the pure joy of living. 



I would briefly summarize the matter 

 thus: 



1. The only true way to fight yellow 

 fever is to wipe out all mosquitoes by water 

 supply, sewerage, drainage and paving. 



2. As a palliative measure or temporary 

 expedient pending the first proposition: 



(a) Compel the report of all fevers. 



(b) Screen all fever patients. 



(c) Use a culicidal agent in all dwellings 

 of the sick, at once, and again before twelve 

 days have elapsed since patient sickened. 



{d) Authorize inspection by health of- 

 ficer of any patient. 



Though perhaps out of place, let me pay 

 a well-deserved tribute to the patriotism 

 of the citizens as a whole, and to the citi- 

 zens' committee, the clergy and the medical 

 profession, and finally, to that gallant band 

 of officers, some sixty in all, who worked 

 in the dust and sweat of August with un- 

 tiring zeal, and particularly the score who 

 were my captains and did such duty as, 

 had it been rendered to the first Napoleon, 

 would have been rewarded by a marshal's 

 baton. 



Difficulties of Recognition and Prevention 



of Yellow Fever: Quitman Kohnke. 



The doctrine of the mosquito conveyance 

 of yellow fever, for the practical applica- 

 tion of preventive measures based thereon, 

 may be expressed thus : 



The immediate causative factor, the germ 

 of the disease, is accessible to the only nat- 

 ural vehicle of infection, the mosquito, 

 during the first three days of the fever, 

 and the germ after entering the mosquito's 

 stomach requires twelve days to reach one 

 of the salivary glands, from which the in- 

 sect, while feeding, may inject it into the 

 blood stream of its victim, in whose system 

 the period of incubation is usually from 

 three to five days, rarely six. 



The human subject of the disease may be 

 considered infectious, therefore, to the mos- 



l 



