MOSQUITOES \.\!> VKU.nw FEVER. 1 *) 
Physicians have been theorizing about the cause of vellow fever 
from the time when they began to treal it. Ii was thought by many 
that it was carried in the air; by other- thai it was conveyed by the 
clothing, bedding, or other articles which had conic in contact with ;i 
yellow-fever patient. There were one or two early suggestions of the 
agency of mosquitoes, hut practically # no attention was paid to them, 
and they have been resurrected and considered significant only since 
the beginning of the present century. With the discovery of the 
agency of micro-organisms in the causation of disease, a search soon 
began for some causative germ. Many micro-organisms were found 
in the course of the autopsies, and many claims were put forth by 
investigators. All of these, however, were virtually set at rest by 
Sternberg in his " Report on the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow 
Fever,-' published in L890, but a claim made by Sanarelli in June. 
l s '.>7. for a bacillus which he called Bacillus icteroides received con- 
siderable credence, and in L899 it was accepted in full by Wasden and 
Geddings, of the United States Marine-Hospital Service, who re- 
ported th.it they had found this bacillus in thirteen or fourteen cases 
of yellow fever in the city of Havana. There i< no evidence, how- 
ever, that this bacillu> has anything to do with yellow fever. In L881 
Finlay, of Havana, proposed the theory that yellow fever, whatever 
it> cause.may be. is conveyed by means of Culex (now Stegomyia) 
fust hit, is (now calopus). Subsequently he published several im- 
portant papers, in which his views were modified from time to time, 
and in the course of which lie mentioned experiments with 100 indi- 
viduals, producing 3 cases of mild fever. Xone of the cases, however. 
was under his full control, and the possibility of other method- of 
contracting the disease was not excluded. Therefore, his theory, 
while it was received with interest, was not considered to be proved. 
In 1890 came the beginning of the true demonstration. An army 
boa I'd was appointed by Surgeon-General Sternberg for the purpose 
of investigating the acute infectious diseases prevailing in the island 
of Cuba. The result achieved by this board, consisting of Reed. 
Carroll. Lazear, and Agramonte, was a demonstration that yellow 
fever is carried by Stegomyia calopus, and their ultimate demonstra- 
tion was so perfect as to silence practically all expert opposition. The 
Third International Sanitary Convention of the American Republics 
unanimously accepted the conclusion that yellow fever is carried by 
this mosquito, and that the Stegomyia constitutes the only known 
mean- by which the disease is spread. To-day, after abundant addi- 
tional demonstration, the original contention of Reed, Carroll, and 
Agramonte (Lazear Inning died in the course of the experiments) i- 
a part of the accepted knowledge of the medical world. The im- 
portance of the discovery can not be overestimated, and it- firsl 
demonstration was followed by antimosquito measures in the city 
