YELLOW FEVER PROPHYLAXIS IN NEW ORLEANS 3 



his experience at Ship Island, gives a list of vessels in which cases of 

 Yellow Fever developed on board on their way from Rio, showing 

 that infected mosquitoes were on board, and Dr. Grubbs, from obser- 

 vations extending over five months at the Gulf Quarantine Station 

 on Ship Island, found that out of 82 vessels examined between June 

 1st and November ist, of which 78 were sailing vessels and 4 steamers, 

 that 3 sailing vessels contained the Stegomyia fasciata on arrival 

 The mosquitoes had evidently come on board at Vera Cruz, the port 

 of departure ; in one of these ships they were breeding in enormous 

 numbers in the water barrels. Dr. Souchon instituted an examination 

 of the fruit vessels during the quarantine season of 1902, and as a 

 result found that out of 12 vessels making 180 trips between New 

 Orleans and Central American ports, the Stegomyia fasciata was 

 present 5 times, and on the vessels running between Havana and 

 New Orleans 10 times. There is a possibility, therefore, of the 

 transportation of the infected Stegomyia fasciata in ships ; at the 

 same time the evidence would appear to indicate that the probability 

 is not very great. Still less appears the possibility of the trans- 

 ference of mosquitoes in baggage (Reed, Grubbs, Gill and Souchon.) 



In addition to its vulnerability by sea. New Orleans is also liable 

 to invasion on the land side, and that, too, in spite of rigid quarantine, 

 for everything will depend on the earliness of the application of this 

 measure of defence. The danger, as is well known, arises from 

 cases passing the frontier before the real nature of the disease has 

 been determined and, therefore, before the application of strict 

 precautions. " While simple in theory, land quarantine may prove 

 a very difficult problem in practice, even when backed by an over- 

 whelming public sentiment and ample means." (Report, Louisiana 

 State Board, 1902-1903.) 



Conditions obtaining in New Orleans prior to 

 the igo^ Epidemic. 



In the second place favourable conditions existed in New Orleans 

 for the concealment and spread of the disease. New Orleans has an 

 estimated population of 325,000, -of which 239,000 are white and 

 86,000 coloured. Owing to the demand for labourers there has 

 grown up a very large Italian and Sicilian population in and around 

 New Orleans which still takes insufficient share in the civic life of 



