Other observations made by us since our arrival confirmed Carter’s conclusions, thus pointing, as it seemed to us, to the presence of an intermediate host, such as the mosquito, which having taken the parasite into the stomach, soon after the entrance of the patient into the non-infected house, was able, after a certain interval, to reconvey the infecting agent to other individuals, thereby converting a non-infected house into an “infected” house. This interval would appear to be from nine to sixteen days (allowing for the period of incubation) which agrees fairly closely with the time required for the passage of the malarial parasite from the stomach of the mosquito to its salivary glands. In view of the foregoing observations we concluded to test the theory of Finlay on human beings. * * * * * Dr. Reed had, however, been working for some time before he came to these conclusions. His first nine cases bitten between August 11 and August 25, were all unsuccessful. The next two, bitten on August 27 and 31, were positive and were well-marked cases of yellow fever. But Dr. Reed’s work was now brought to a stand-still. He found that all his Spaniards were deserting, and that he could get no more for love or money to come to the camp. The work from being much sought had become very unpopular. For some time he was unable to find any good reason for this. The story told in Havana was that the American soldiers, who were doing the guard duty for the camp, had found an old lime kiln in the lower part of the grounds. In this kiln they had placed a lot of bleached old bones, and here they would take the newly arrived Spaniard and darkly insinuate that these were the bones of their predecessors in Dr. Reed’s camp, and that if they did not leave before they were bitten by Dr. Reed’s mosquitoes, their bones would soon be bleaching in the same place. It was useless for Dr. Reed to argue and explain. This ocular evidence was too strong for any argument by word of mouth, and Dr. Reed had to give it up. Our soldiers had seen that the disease was very mild; that the patients while they were in camp had the very best of high living and a mighty good time, and when they left, were presented with a gratification of two hundred and fifty dollars in shining gold coin. They concluded that this was too good for Gallegos, and belonged of right to natural-born Americans. When the Spaniards had decamped, our men came forward and volunteered. Dr. Reed accepted them, and the work went forward. CHAPTER III THE DISCOVERIES OF THE REED BOARD Dr. Reed wished to make his demonstrations as convincing and spectacular as possible. It was an entirely new idea, and his conclusions excited a great deal of adverse comment and criticism. This theory was so contrary to what most men thought had been their practical experience that it was received with scant consideration.