Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

Fantasy Football Challenge - Library of Books for Football Fanatics

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Popular Science Monthly

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weeks, without experiencing any ill effects. Promptly on Christmas morning Moran, who had not been exposed to infection except for his entrance into the "mosquito building" as described, came down with a well-marked attack of yellow fever. The temperature in this room, where these mosquitoes had been released, was kept rather high and a vessel with water was provided, where they might lay their eggs if so inclined, but notwithstanding all these precautions, it was subsequently found that the insects had been attacked by ants, so that by the end of the month only one of the fifteen mosquitoes remained alive. It is hardly necessary to detail here how seven other men were subjected to the sting of our infected mosquitoes, of which number five developed the disease, but it may be interesting to note that two of these men had been previously exposed in the "infected clothing building" without their becoming infected, showing that they were susceptible to yellow fever after all. The evidence so far seemed to show that the mosquito could only be infected by sucking blood of a yellow-fever patient during the first three days of the disease; to prove that the parasite was present in the circulating blood at that time we therefore injected some of this fluid taken from a different case each time, under the skin of five men: four of these suffered an attack of yellow fever as the result of the injection. The other one, a Spaniard, could not be infected either by the injection of blood or the application of mosquitoes which were known to be infected, showing that he had a natural immunity or, more likely, that he had had yellow fever at some previous time. While selecting the Spaniards, it was often ascertained that they had been in Cuba before, as soldiers in the Spanish army usually, and the natural conclusion was that they had undergone infection; it was very seldom that any escaped during the Spanish control of the island. Thus terminated our experiments with mosquitoes which, though necessarily performed on human beings, fortunately did not cause a single death; on the other hand, they served to revolutionize all standard methods of sanitation with regard to yellow fever. They showed the uselessness of disinfection of clothing and how easily an epidemic can be stamped out in a community by simply protecting the sick from the sting of the mosquitoes and by the extensive and wholesale destruction of these insects which, added to the suppression of their breeding places, if thoroughly carried out, are the only measures necessary to forever rid a country of this scourge. Besides keeping a sharp lookout against the importation of yellow fever cases, these are the simple rules that have kept the Panama Canal free and prevented the slaughter of hundreds of foreigners, so generally expected every year, in former times. Since we made our demonstration in 1901, our work has been corroborated by various commissions appointed for the purpose, in Mexico, Brazil and Cuba, composed variously of Americans, French, English, Cuban, Brazilian and German investigators. Nothing has been added to our original findings; nothing has been contradicted of what we have reported, and to-day, after nearly thirteen years, the truths that we uncovered stand incontrovertible; besides, they have been the means of driving out yellow fever from Cuba, the United States (Laredo, Texas, 1903 and New Orleans, La., 1905), British Honduras and several cities of Brazil. Of the Army Board only I remain. Lazear, as reported, died during the early part of our investigations; Reed left us in 1902 and Carroll only five years later. The reader may wonder of what benefit was it to us, this painstaking and remarkable accomplishment which has been such a blessing to humanity! See what the late Surgeon General of the U. S. Army had to say in his report (Senate Document No. 520, Sixty-first Congress, second session): 1. Major Walter Reed, surgeon, United States Army, died in Washington, D. C., from appendicitis, November 23, 1902, aged 51. His widow, Emilie Lawrence Reed, is receiving a pension of $125 a month. 2 Maj. James Carroll was promoted from first lieutenant to major by special act of Congress, March 9, 1907. He died in Washington, D C., of myocarditis, September 16, 1907. His widow, Jennie H. Carroll, since his death, has received an annuity of $125 a month, appropriated from year to year in the Army appropriation bill. 3. Dr. Jesse W. Lazear, contract surgeon, United States Army, died at Camp Columbia, Cuba, of yellow fever, September 25, 1900. His widow, Mabel M. Lazear, since his death, has received an annuity of $125 a month appropriated from year to year in the Army appropriation bill. 4. Dr. Aristides Agramonte is the only living member of the board. He is professor of bacteriology and experimental pathology in the University of Habana and has never received, either directly or indirectly, any material reward for his share in the work of the board. It is not for me to make any comments: the above paragraphs have all the force of a plain, truthful statement of facts. Perhaps it is thought that enough reward is to be found in the contemplation of so much good derived from one's own efforts and the feeling it may produce of innermost satisfaction and in forming the belief that one had not lived in vain. In a very great measure, I know, the thought is true. THE EVOLUTION OF THE STARS AND THE FORMATION OF THE EARTH. IV BY WILLIAM WALLACE CAMPBELL DIRECTOR OF THE LICK OBSERVATORY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA THE PLANETESIMAL HYPOTHESIS THE most elaborate structure yet proposed to explain the origin of the solar system is the planetesimal hypothesis by Chamberlin and Moulton. The energy which these investigators have devoted to formulating and testing this hypothesis, in the light of the principles of mechanics, has been commensurate with the importance of the subject. They postulate that the materials now composing the Sun, planets, and satellites, at one time existed as a spiral nebula, or as a great spiral swarm of discrete particles, each particle in elliptic motion about the central nucleus. The authors go further back and endeavor to account for the origin of the spiral nebula, but this phase of the subject is not vital to their hypothesis. However, it

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