Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/247

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day, Dec. 9, 1900, twelve days; 4, a mild ease, on the first day, Dec. 13, 1900, eight days; 7, a well-marked case, on the first day, Dec. 16, 1900, five days—total, 15.

Only one of these insects was considered capable of conveying the infection, viz., the mosquito that had bitten a severe case twenty-four days before; while three others—the twelve-day insects—had possibly reached the dangerous stage, as they had been kept at an average temperature of 82° F.

At 12, noon, of the same day, John J. Moran—already referred to as Case 2 in this report—a non-immune American, entered the room where the mosquitoes had been freed, and remained thirty minutes. During this time he was bitten about the face and hands by several insects. At 4.30 p. m., the same day, he again entered and remained twenty minutes, and was again bitten. The following day, at 4.30 p. m., he, for the third time, entered the room, and was again bitten.

Case 7.—On Dec. 25, 1900, at 6 a. m., the fourth day, Moran complained of slight dizziness and frontal headache. At 11 a. m. he went to bed, complaining of increased headache and malaise, with a temperature of 99.6° F., pulse 88; at noon the temperature was 100.4° F., the pulse 98; at 1 p. m., 101.2° F., the pulse 90, and his eyes were much injected and face suffused. He was removed to the yellow fever wards. He was seen on several occasions by the board of experts and the diagnosis of yellow fever confirmed.

The period of incubation in this case, dating from the first visit to 'Building No. 2,' was three days and twenty-three hours. If reckoned from his last visit it was two days and eighteen hours. There was no other possible source for his infection, as he had been strictly quarantined at Camp Lazear for a period of thirty-two days prior to his exposure in the mosquito building.

During each of Moran's visits, two non-immunes remained in this same building, only protected by the wire-screen partition. From Dec. 21, 1900, till Jan. 8, 1901, inclusive—eighteen nights—these non-immunes have slept in this house, only protected by the wire-screen partition. These men have remained in perfect health to the present time.

Thus at Camp Lazear, of 7 non-immunes whom we attempted to infect by means of the bites of contaminated mosquitoes, we have succeeded in conveying the disease to 6, or 85.71 per cent. On the other hand, of 7 non-immunes whom we tried to infect by means of fomites, under particularly favorable circumstances, we did not succeed in a single instance.

It is evident that in view of our present knowledge relating to the mode of transmission of yellow fever, the preventive measures which have heretofore been considered most important, i. e., isolation of the sick, disinfection of clothing and bedding, and municipal sanitation—are either of no avail or of comparatively little value. It is true that yellow fever epidemics have resulted, as a rule, from the introduction to a previously healthy locality of one or more persons suffering from the disease. But we now know that its extension did not depend upon the direct contact of the sick with the non-immune individuals and that isolation of the sick from such contact is unnecessary and without avail. On the other hand complete isolation from the agent which is responsible for the propagation of the disease is all-important. In the absence of a yellow-fever patient from which to draw blood the mosquito is harmless, and in the absence of the mosquito the yellow-fever patient is