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THE STANDARD GUIDE. 
numerous military establishments into public schools, introduced an 
American school system of public education, put in operation modern 
and - efficient systems of sanitation; and above all and beyond all, 
eradicated the yellow fever, and converted Havana from the foul pest 
hole it had been for a century and a half into one of the healthiest 
cities of the world. 
VIII.—The Triumph over Yellow Fever. 
The eradication of the yellow fever from Cuba was rendered possible 
by the discovery that the disease was transmitted by the agency of a cer¬ 
tain mosquito. The demonstration of this fact was made by a Board of 
Investigation sent to Cuba by. Surgeon-General Sternberg in the summer 
of 1900. The Board consisted of Major Walter Reed, Surgeon in the 
U. S. Army, and Acting-Surgeons James Carroll, Aristides Agramonte, 
and Jesse W. Lazear. The story of the investigation and its momentous 
results are told in a memoir of Dr. Reed prepared by Major W. D. McCaw, 
Surgeon U. S. Army, from which the following paragraphs are taken: 
. “At this time the American authorities in Cuba had for a year and a half 
endeavored to diminish the disease and mortality of the Cuban towns, by 
general sanitary work, but while the health of the population showed 
distinct improvement and the mortality had greatly diminished, yellow 
fever apparently had been entirely unaffected by these measures. 
“Reed was convinced from the first that general sanitary measures alone 
would not check the disease but that its transmission was probably due 
to an insect. 
“Application was made to General Leonard Wood, the Military Governor 
or Luba, for permission to conduct experiments on non-immune persons, 
and a liberal sum of money requested for the purpose of rewarding volun¬ 
teers who would submit themselves to experiment. Money and full 
authority to proceed were promptly granted, and to the everlasting glory 
of the American soldier, volunteers from the army offered themselves for 
experiment in plenty, and with the utmost fearlessness. 
“Before the arrangements were entirely completed, Dr. Carroll, a mem¬ 
ber of the commission, allowed himself to be bitten by a mosquito that 
twelve days previously had filled itself with the blood of a yellow fever 
patient. He suffered from a very severe attack, and his was the first ex¬ 
perimental case. Dr. Lazear also experimented on himself at the same 
time, but was not infected. Some days later, while in the yellow fever 
ward, he was bitten by a mosquito and noted the fact carefully. He 
acquired the disease in its most terrible form, and died a martyr to science, 
and a true hero. No other fatality occurred among the brave men who, in 
the course of the experiments, willingly exposed themselves to the infec¬ 
tion of the dreaded disease. 
“A camp was specially constructed for the experiments about four miles 
