CONTROL WORK IN MEXICO 435 
Mortality From YELLOw FEVER IN Rio DE JANEIRO FROM 1872 To AucusT, 1909. 
ee Deaths Year Deaths Year Deaths 
ciate arcs ielar abised erence 102 1885 icclongoweuieoieas TA4D 
WBTS: eicassesates ies s 3659 US86) eu tadkecires 1449 
VB TE orcsalets cei cciese asc 829 TBST sissewverendvectvecasine 137 
ABTS ec scek Recess 1292 DSSS) are csargueievessradaieitd TAT 
TSG scicscs tooeccuncteret tain 3476 VERGE os cea duc screen v soiees 2156 
LECT sspsncteut weakncestaresayes 282 DS 90 is crsaaeuuteawaava 719 
TBTS sshescanssiorae stevie 1176 WS 9M, ase aces wheres ores 4456 
BTS) suicoeatesmamey: 974 2:1: See eee 4312 
1880) ocnmeievaunatens 1625 TOO 8 spans: de aravsliereraiere 825 
TBSD a escreeves cece ise 257 TS OAT | revo cw sos Grcestoeneries 4852 
1882 esses seiaucs 89 VS OS a ecutawenu aes 818 
TB 88) sc iecerecetisearnaureais 1608 1896) seeisaweee anaes 2929 
WBS: oo ocsce sy och Yenc: rciereye 863 1897 ssceasacuw uses 159 
WORK IN VERA CRUZ AND MEXICO GENERALLY. 
The President of the Superior Board of Health of the Republic of Mexico, 
Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, was one of the first to grasp the importance of the mos- 
quito discoveries of the American Army Board, and one of the first to make an 
effort to turn them to account. As elsewhere, he met with conservatism and a 
certain amount of disbelief, but it was not long before he succeeded in establish- 
ing an anti-mosquito service for practically all of the towns in which yellow fever 
appeared to be endemic, and devoted especial attention to the larger sea-ports 
most frequently entered by foreign vessels. In 1893 the disease appeared in epi- 
demic form in several cities of the Gulf States of Mexico and spread to some 
interior cities as well, such as San Luis Potosi and some in the State of Nuevo 
Leon. By the aid of strong executive orders on the part of President Diaz, the 
Superior Board of Health was able to take action in all of the States except one, 
and was able to arrest the epidemic. The plan of campaign was based upon the 
mosquito doctrine, and the measures involved the isolation of patients, the 
thorough disinfection of dwellings by sulphur dioxide, the drainage of swamps, 
covering of drinking-water reservoirs, and the use of petroleum. 
In the course of this work and that which followed, taking Vera Cruz to be 
the oldest and most permanent focus of yellow fever in the Mexican Republic, 
and assuming that all the epidemics had found their origin in that place, the 
principal attention of the Superior Board of Health was devoted to that city. 
The town was divided into four districts, each of which was placed under the 
charge of an experienced physician, and each of these had first-class sanitary 
agents. Subordinate to these latter, second-class agents were appointed, and a 
certain number of laborers were added. As a result of this effective ogarniza- 
tion, Carroll, writing his chapter on yellow fever for Osler’s Modern Medicine at 
the close of 1906, was able to make the following statement: “ In Mexico yellow 
fever has been eradicated from its endemic focus at Vera Cruz through the 
able efforts of Eduardo Liceaga, the President of the Superior Board of Health, 
whose complete grasp of the problem and whose enlightened and energetic action 
has added support to the mosquito doctrine, and would have controlled the dis- 
ease absolutely if the same means of enforcement were available in Mexico as in 
Cuba in 1901.” 
29 
