Footprints of Medical Discovery in Cuba. 9 



Within recent years it had become a fact of prominence and im- 

 portance that various diseases were communicated from man to 

 man and from animal to animal through the intermediation of 

 certain biting insects. In order to do so he wished to contrast 

 two very formidable diseases — namely, yellow fever and malaria. 

 In the case of yellow fever the germ that caused it was unknown, 

 while in the case of malaria the germ was one of the best known 

 parasites with which they could possibly acquaint themselves. 

 There had only been four cases of yellow fever in Germany, while 

 there was a small epidemic in England in 1865, which took place 

 somewhere near Swansea. In Spain and Portugal the disease was 

 very dreadful, while along the coasts of the Panama and adjoining 

 countries the disease was one of the most dreadful that could 

 possibly attack humanity. It was terribly fatal, unusually painful, 

 and altogether an abominable condition. In Havana the disease 

 had been known to exist since 1760, and since then it had never 

 been free from it. The American commissioners had made out 

 in their annual death-rate that about five hundred people had died 

 from this disease. In 1880 a fan\ous practitioner made the dis- 

 covery that the disease was comnmnicated from person to person 

 through the bite of a mosquito. In 1900 the Americans sent to 

 Havana a commission for the purpose of determining the cause of 

 yellow fever. After they had tried hypothesis after hypothesis 

 they finally recollected the half-forgotten theories of Dr. Carlos 

 Finlay, and proceeded to make investigations about the mosquitos. 

 Volunteers were asked for, and several young men, who were 

 soldiers in the United States army, allowed themselves to be 

 inoculated with the infected germs. In his (the lecturer's) 

 opinion such men were heroes, for it must be remembered that 

 the disease which they ran the risk of contracting was nearly 

 always fatal. The mosquitos immediately after they had sucked 

 the infected blood were placed upon the young men, and the 

 result was that none of them contracted the yellow fever. Pro- 

 ceeding, the lecturer showed how that two famous doctors 



