Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 87.djvu/69

Rh

N planning, as early as 1903, a monograph of the mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies which should be of service to zoologists and sanitarians, the writer included in his outline plan some consideration of the pioneer workers in this field, and with considerable trouble secured the photographs which are reproduced in this article. He well knew the interest which always attaches to the personalities of men who do great work, and felt sure that the publication of these likenesses would add greatly to the interest of the monograph. But when the monograph was completed and printing begun, he discovered that the Carnegie Institution of Washington had laid down a rule that the portraits of living men were not to be published in any of the volumes issued by the institution. This was rather embarrassing, since it had been definitely stated to the foreign workers that the photographs would be used in this way; but since this was impossible, it seems desirable to have them appear in accessible form, and it is with full confidence that the readers of will be glad to know what these men look like that these lines are written. During the four or five years following Ross's discovery of the carriage of malaria by certain species of Anopheles there was intense activity in many parts of the world in mosquito investigations, and it is the pioneer workers of this period who are here shown. The only very prominent worker who is omitted is Robert Koch, whose photograph I was unable to secure. The only Americans included are the original members of the Army Yellow Fever Commission, Dr. A. F. A. King, of Washington, Dr. J. H. White, of the U. S. Public Health Service, and Surgeon-General Gorgas, who during that period had accomplished his wonderful clean-up of Havana.

They are a fine, forceful set of men, as their faces show, and to this group the world for all time will owe much. Nearly all of them are, or were, known personally to the writer, and he can thus assure those who read this article that the faces of the men themselves are like their photographs.