The Scientific Monthly, October to December, 1915Various
Science
The Scientific Monthly, October to December, 1915
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
A visit was now made to Dr. Finlay, who, much elated at the
news that the board was about to investigate his pet theory,
the transmission of yellow fever from man to man by mosquitoes,
very kindly explained to us many points regarding the life of
the one kind he thought most guilty and ended by furnishing us
with a number of eggs which, laid by a female mosquito nearly a
month before, had remained unhatched on the inside of a half
empty bowl of water in his library.
Much to our disappointment and regret, during the first week of
August, Major Reed was recalled to Washington that he might, in
collaboration with Drs. Vaughan and Shakespeare, complete the
report upon "Typhoid Fever in the Army." Thus we were deprived
of his able counsel during the first part of the mosquito
research. Major Reed was detained longer than he expected and
could not return to Cuba until early in October, several days
after Lazear's death.
The mosquito eggs obtained from Dr. Finlay hatched out in due
time; the insects sent to Washington for their exact
classification were declared by Dr. L. O. Howard, entomologist
to the Agricultural Department, to be Culex fasciatus. Later,
they have been called Stegomyia fasciatus and now go under the
name of Stegomyia calopus (Aedes cal.).
Lazear applied some of these mosquitoes to cases of yellow
fever at "Las Animas" Hospital, keeping them in separate glass
tubes properly labeled, and every thing connected with their
bitings was carefully recorded; the original batch soon died
and the work was carried on with subsequent generations from
the same.
The lack of material at Quemados caused us to remove our field
of action to Havana, where cases of yellow fever continued to
appear. We met almost every day at "Las Animas" Hospital, where
Lazear was trying to infect his mosquitoes, or now and then I
performed autopsy upon a case, and Carroll secured sufficient
cultures to last him for several days of bacteriological
investigation.
Considering that, in case our surmise as to the insect's action
should prove to be correct, it was dangerous to introduce
infected mosquitoes amongst a population of 1,400 non-immunes
at Camp Columbia, Dr. Lazear thought best to keep his
presumably infected insects in my laboratory at the Military
Hospital No. 1, from where he carried them back and forth to
the patients who were periodically bitten.
Incidentally, after the mosquitoes fed upon the yellow fever
patients, they were applied, at intervals of two or three days,
to whoever would consent to run the risk of contracting yellow
fever in this way; needless to say, current opinion was against
this probability and as time passed and numerous individuals
who had been bitten by insects which had previously fed upon
yellow fever blood remained unaffected, I must confess that
even the members of the board, who were rather sanguine in
their expectations, became somewhat discouraged and their faith
in success very much shaken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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