Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/244

234, the amount being in one positive case 2 c. c, in one 1.5 c. c, and in one 0.5 c. e. In the case attended with a negative result, a Spanish immigrant, a mosquito inoculation also proved to be without effect, and Dr. Reed supposes that this individual 'probably possesses a natural immunity to yellow fever.' Dr. Reed says with reference to these experiments:

It is important to note that in the three cases in which the injection of the blood brought about an attack of yellow fever, careful culture from the same blood, taken immediately after injection, failed to show the presence of Sanarelli's bacillus.

Having demonstrated the fact that yellow fever is propagated by mosquitoes Dr. Reed and his associates have endeavored to ascertain whether it may also be propagated, as has been commonly supposed, by clothing, bedding and other articles which have been in use by those sick with this disease. With reference to the experiments made for the solution of this question I cannot do better than to quote in extenso from Dr. Reed's paper read at the Pan-American Medical Congress in Havana. He says:

We believe that the general consensus of opinion both of the medical profession and of the laity is strongly in favor of the conveyance of yellow fever by fomites. The origin of epidemics, devastating in their course, has been frequently attributed to the unpacking of trunks and boxes that contained supposedly infected clothing; and hence the efforts of health authorities, both state and national, are being constantly directed to the thorough disinfection of all clothing and bedding shipped from ports where yellow fever prevails. To such extremes have efforts at disinfection been carried, in order to prevent the importation of this disease into the United States, that, during the epidemic season, all articles of personal apparel and bedding have been subjected to disinfection, sometimes both at the port of departure and at the port of arrival; and this has been done whether the articles have previously been contaminated by contact with yellow-fever patients or not. The mere fact that the individual has resided, even for a day, in a city where yellow fever is present, has been sufficient cause to subject his baggage to rigid disinfection by the sanitary authorities.

To determine, therefore, whether clothing and bedding which have been contaminated by contact with yellow fever patients and their discharges can convey this disease is a matter of the utmost importance. Although the literature contains many references to the failure of such contaminated articles to cause the disease, we have considered it advisable to test, by actual experiment on non-immune human beings, the theory of the conveyance of yellow fever by fomites, since we know of no other way in which this question can ever be finally determined.

For this purpose there was erected at Camp Lazear a small frame house consisting of one room 14 x 20 feet and known as 'Building No. 1,' or the 'Infected Clothing and Bedding Building.' The cubic capacity of this house was 2,800 feet. It was tightly ceiled within with 'tongue-and-grooved' boards, and was well battened on the outside. It faced to the south and was provided with two small windows, each 26 x 34 inches in size. These windows were both placed on the south side of the building, the purpose being to prevent, as much as