284 



YELLOW FEVER 



New Orleans Commission reports that, of 200 

 cisterns, etc., examined in the city for the presence 

 of larvae, the larva of Ctilex (Stegomyia) predomi- 

 nated in more than 60 per cent. 



The report of Surgeon- Major Gorgas is very 

 pleasant reading. For two centuries, Cuba had 

 been cursed with yellow fever ; then, after the war 

 with Spain, America took it over : — 



"The army took charge of the health depart- 

 ment of Havana, when deaths (from all causes) 

 were occurring at the rate of 21,252 per year. It 

 gives it up, with deaths occurring at the rate of 

 5720 per year. It took charge, with smallpox 

 endemic for years. It gives it up, with not a 

 case having occurred in the city for over eighteen 

 months. It took charge, with yellow fever endemic 

 for two centuries — the relentless foe of every 

 foreigner who came within Havana's borders, 

 which he could not escape, and from whose attack 

 he well knew every fourth man must die. The 

 army has stamped out this disease in its greatest 

 stronghold." 



Make fair allowance for the wide variation, from 

 year to year, of the number of yellow fever cases 

 in any town within the geographical belt of the 

 disease ; admit that a town may, in the course of 

 nature, have many hundred cases in one year, and 

 only half a dozen in another year. Again, make 

 fair allowance for all other good influences of the 

 American occupation of Cuba, beside those that 

 were concerned with the stamping out of Culex ; 

 admit that the general death-rate of Havana, in 



