Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

Fantasy Football Challenge - Library of Books for Football Fanatics

Fantasy Football Challenge presents
Popular Science Monthly

89 of 119

the experiments to the end. I firmly believe that had other been the circumstances, had a more military and less scientific man been at the head of the government, the investigation would have terminated there and then, and many years would have passed, with hundreds of lives uselessly sacrificed, before we could have attained our present remarkable sanitary triumphs. We immediately set about choosing a location for our camp. I had already looked over the ground, preferring the proximity of Camp Columbia, from where supplies could be easily obtained and because the Military Hospital there could be used for treating the cases that we intended to produce; I was therefore favorably impressed with the seclusion offered by a spot situated a short distance from the main road, in a farm, named San Jose, belonging to my friend Dr. Ignacio Rojas, of Havana. Major Reed decided upon this place after looking at many others in the neighborhood, so that on the twentieth of November we inaugurated our camp, which we named Camp Lazear, in honor to the memory of our dead colleague, consisting then of seven army tents, guarded by a military garrison, composed of men who had been carefully selected by virtue of their previous good record and their interest in the work to be undertaken. Feeling that we had proved, to ourselves at least, the agency of the mosquito in yellow fever, it became our duty to disprove the theory, until then held as a certainty by many authorities, to the effect that the soiled bedding and clothing, the secretions and excreta of patients, were infectious and in some way carried the germ of the disease. We therefore designed a small wooden building, to be erected a short distance from the tense, with a capacity of 2,800 cubic feet. The walls and ceiling were absolutely tight, the windows and vestibuled door screened and all precautions taken to prevent the entrance of insects. Into this, called the "infected clothing building," three beds and a stove, to maintain a high tropical temperature, were introduced; also mattresses and pillows, underwear, pajamas, towels, sheets, blankets, etc., soiled with blood and discharges from yellow fever cases: these articles were put on the beds, hung about the room and packed in a trunk and two boxes placed there for the purpose. The building was finished and equipped on November 30. That Friday evening, Dr. Robert P. Cook, U. S. Army, with two other American volunteers, entered it and prepared to pass the night: they had instructions to unpack the boxes and trunk, to handle and shake the clothing and in every way to attempt to disseminate the yellow fever poison, in case it was contained in the various pieces. We watched the proceedings from the outside, through one of the windows. The foul conditions which developed upon opening the trunk were of such a character that the three men were seen to suddenly rush out of the building into the fresh air; one of them was so upset that his stomach rebelled; yet, after a few minutes, with a courage and determination worthy only of such a cause, they went back into the building and passed a more or less sleepless night, in the midst of indescribable filth and overwhelming stench. For twenty consecutive nights these men went through the same performance; during the day they remained together, occupying a tent near their sleeping quarters. Dr. Cook, by voluntarily undergoing such a test, without remuneration whatsoever, proved his faith in the mosquito theory; his demonstration of the harmless character of so-called infected clothing, in yellow fever, has been of the greatest importance. The other six men (two of them with Dr. Cook) who were subjected to this test, received each a donation of one hundred dollars for his services. Many days even before the establishment of the experimental camp, the board had heard that several men who knew of our work were willing to submit to the inoculations and thus aid in clearing up the mystery of yellow fever. Two of these require special mention, John R. Kissinger, a private in the Hospital Corps of the Army, was the first to offer himself most altruistically, for, as he expressed it, his offer was made without any desire for pecuniary or other consideration and solely "in the interest of humanity and the cause of science," the other, J. J. Moran, a civilian employee, also stipulated as a condition that he was to receive no pay for his services. Both these men, in due time, suffered from yellow fever and until very recently had never obtained any reward for the great risk which they ran so voluntarily and praiseworthily. Kissinger, who after several years' service in the army became disabled, is receiving a pension from the government; Moran, I hope, is still well and in the employ of the Isthmian Canal Commission, justly enjoying the friendship and confidence of his superior officers. The names of Kissinger and Moran should figure upon the roll of honor of the U. S. Army. On the day the camp was definitely organized, Kissinger, who had not gone outside the military reservation for more than a month, moved into Camp Lazear and received his first bite from a mosquito which evidently was not "loaded" for, again on November 23, he was stung by the same insect without result. On December 5, five mosquitoes were applied, which brought about a moderate infection in three days. Moran was also bitten by mosquitoes which were supposed to be infected on November 26 and 29, both times unsuccessfully. As will be seen, he was infected later on. By this time we had decided, the weather having cooled considerably, that it was better to keep the mosquitoes at a higher temperature and nearer to the men who were to be inoculated; therefore it was planned to put up another small wooden structure, which was to be known as the "Mosquito Building" in which an artificial temperature could be maintained; at my suggestion, the building was so designed that it might serve to infect individuals; by liberating infected mosquitoes on the inside and exposing some person to their stings, we could try to reproduce the infection as we felt it occurred in nature. Another reason for the mosquito house was the need to obviate the transportation of the insects from the Military Hospital, where I kept them, to our camp, which could

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