Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-08-16
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES
MOSQUITOES AND YELLOW FEVER.

MOSQUITOES AND YELLOW FEVER.
An experimental sanitary station was
established in the open, mile from
Quemados. Two houses were built,
tightly constructed, with windows and
doors protected by wire screens.
In one of these houses, soiled sheets,
pillow cases and blankets were used as
bedding, and this bedding was brought
straight from the beds of patients sick
with yellow fever in Havana. For sixty
three days these beds were occupied by
members of the hospital corps for periods
varying from twenty to twenty-one days.
At the end of this occupation the men,
who were all non-immunes, were taken
to quarantine for five days and then re-
leased. Not one of them was taken i'll.
All were released in excellent health.
This experiment is of the greatest i'm
portance, as showing that the disease Is
not conveyed by fomites, and hence the
disinfection of clothing. bedding, or mer-
chandlse supposed to have been contain
mated by contact with yellow fever pa
tients is no longer necessary, and the
extremes to which this disinfection work
has been carried in cases of yellow fever
epdemics in our Southern states have
been perfectly useless.
In the other house, which was known
as the "infected mosquito building"
were no articles which had not been
carefully disinfected. The house con-
tanned two rooms, and non-immunes were
placed in both rooms. In one room,
separate from the other by wire screen
al xr,h; ah hoI
bitten yellow fever patients were adj
mitted. In the other room they were ex-
cluded. In the latter room the men re-
manned in perfect health; but in the mos
quito room 80 per cent. of the persons
bitten by infected mosquitoes that had
been kept twelve days or more after Bit
ing yellow fever patients were taken
with the disease, and the yellow fever
diagnosis was confirmed by resident
physicians in Havana who were above
all others familiar with the disease in
every form. Persons bitten by mos
qutOes at an earlier period than twelve
days after they had bitten yellow fever
patient did not contract the disease. In
another series of experiments, of seven
persons bitten by infected mosquitoes by
placing the hand in Jar containing the
insects, five. or Il per cent, contracted
the disease.
Such. in brief, was the result of the
experimental work. None of the pa
tients experimental with died.
1t was found that yellow fever was
produced by the injection of blood taken
from the general circulation of patient,
;,,;o .
centimeters of blood being followed by
the disease, and the definite conclusion
was reached that the parasite of yellow
fever must be present in the general cir
culation at least during the early stages
of the disease. and that yellow fever may
be produced, like malarlal fever, either
by the bite of the mosquito or by the in
lection of the blood taken from the gen.
eral circulation. From this the import
ant corollary is reached, to quote DR..
Reeds own words; "The spread of
yellow fever can be most effectually con-
trolled by measures directed to the
destruction of the mosquitoes and the
protection of the sick against the bites of
these insects. DIR. l.. o. Howard in
Review of Reviews.
900
GREAT YEAR FOR FLYERS AND CRAWLERS.
The weather of the past few weeks APP
pears to have been admirably suited to
the health and propagation of insects,
and numerous species are now right in
their glory. A short time ago it was re-
ported from Buffalo that a caterpillar pest
of some sort was imminent there, and that
the little mischief makers were causing
no end of annoyance to farmers in that
neighborhood. Instead of combining their
attacks to trees of the horse chestnut,
elm and poplar varieties, as in former
years, they have been stripping the fruit
orchards, and it is feared that they will
impair the fruit crop of western New
York.
From White Plains have come reports
of another pest, which has excited the
wrath of the people of Westchester
county. This insect is known as the
"hying boring bug" His aim in life,
apparently, is to destroy as much valu-
able vegetation as possible, together with
whatever suits his taste. He seems to
be partial to lawns and grain fields, and
when he and his family suspend opera
lions, the place they abandon presents a
scene of devastation.
In Virginia and the Carolinas the
'kissing bug scientifically known as
Melanolestes picipes, has been making
himself felt. So troublesome has he be-
come that the chief entomologist of the
department of agriculture has deemed it