A recent writer on yellow fever, Augustin, suggests that its origin can be traced back to the siege of Troy, and that the Greeks and Trojans suffered severely from this disease during the prosecution of the war. Mr. Augustin argues quite forcibly in favor of the idea that many of the great epidemics of Europe and Asia, before and since the Christian era, were yellow fever. He thinks that the population became immune from the fact that all at some time suffered from the disease, and thus, in the course of time, it died out from want of material on which to feed. I consider Mr. Augustin one of the most competent authorities that we have on the history of yellow fever, and anyone writing on that disease in any of its phases would do well to consult his monumental work. It seems to me, however, that the evidence is against yellow fever having occurred in Europe before the fifteenth century. If it had been general in southern Europe, semi-tropical Asia Minor and semi-tropical Africa, it would be there now, just as it is in similar localities in tropical and semi-tropical America. If the Phœnicians had suffered from yellow fever during the time of Abraham, and the great epidemics of Smyrna, Thebes, Athens, Rome and Carthage had been yellow fever, this disease would be in those countries now. History does not show that yellow fever can immunize a whole country, but merely the locality in which it prevails endemically. While the old inhabitant of Havana was immune to yellow fever, the man from the interior of Cuba where yellow fever had not been endemic knew that he was just as liable to contract yellow fever when he visited Havana as was the man who came from the United States, and he feared the disease just as much. The native of the city of Panama was immune to yellow fever, but the soldier coming from the mountains of the interior knew that he would catch the disease, and this actually occurred many times whenever a fresh regiment was brought to Panama. At present, Guayaquil in Ecuador is the seaport of Quito, the capital of the country. Quito is situated some three hundred miles up in the mountains, and is connected by rail with Guayaquil. Yellow fever is at present endemic in Guayaquil and has been so for many years. The old resident of Guayaquil is immune to yellow fever, but the natives of Quito dread Quayaquil as they do death. They never go there when they can avoid it, and when they have to visit the outside world, they remain in Quayaquil just as few hours as will enable them to catch their ship. And the fear is well founded. Very many Ecuadorians of high position have lost their lives from yellow fever contracted in passing through Quayaquil. But all these years of endemicity of yellow fever in these cities, the inhabitants of the respective countries in which they are situated have never become immune.