The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-08-11
MAJOR REEDS WORK IN HAVANA
HOW He PROVED THAT YELLOW FEVER IS
TRANSMITTED ONLY BY ONE SPE-
CtEs OF MOSQUITO.
Non.lmmumes Slept for Days in SOi!ed
Bedding of Yellow Fever Cases, in
Sealed Room, With No Ill Effect.

by the New Orleans & Northeastern
Railroad Company, Alabama & Vicks-
burg Railway Company, and Vicks-
burg, Shreveport q Pacific Railway
Company:
The appearance of yellow fever in
New Orleans and the determination Of
DR.. White, head of the Federal forces
sent here, of the State and City Boards
OF Health and of practically the whole
OF the medical fraternity to appeal to
the whole community for cooperation
in the effort to apply successfully the
dogma that yellow fever is transmit
ted only by a certain species of mos
quote has aroused intense interest in
the subject OF the causatiOn of yellow
fever epidemics. Some details are
| given here of the wonderful results of
the experiments of the commission
headed by Major Walter Reed of the
United States Army in Cuba, results
which, it is claimed, have enabled the
authorities to make Havana, the home
of yellow fever, practically immune
after $50 years of constant fever. The
whole credit of the development of the
theory into q scientific fact is due to
| Major Reed, who, with other officers
and privates of the United States Ar
my, risked their lives in the demon
stration. Assistant Surgeon Lazear
lost his life in the attempt Major
Reed succombed three years ago to an
attack of appendicitis in the city of
Washington,
MAJOR REED A BRILLIANT VIRGINIAN.
Major Walter Reed was born in
Gloucester county, Virginia, in 1851,
He was the son of the Rev. Lemuel
Sutton Reed. He received a fair pri-
mary education and then went to the
University of Virginia to study medi-
cine, graduating in 1868, when only II
years of age. He secured a second
degree at Bellevue Medical College in
New York and then served in the
Brooklyn and Blackwell S Island Hos
pital. Before he was Il he was dis
trict physician in New York, and at %
was one of the five inspectors of the
Board OF Health of Brooklyn. He
went into the United States Army as
Assistant Surgeon with the rank of
First Lieutenant in 1875, and during
the next eighteen years served in Ari-
IONA, Nebraska, Dakota and in the
Southern and Eastern States. He was
always an interchangeable student and
pioneer. In 1890 he went to Baltimore,
working in the laboratories of Johns
Hopkins University. In 1893 he was
made surgeon with the rank of Major
and was detailed in Washington as
Curator of the Army Medical Museum
and Professor of Bacteriology at the
Army Medical School, He won high
praise for his writings and became an
expert in investigating the cases of ep-
idemic diseases at military posts and
in making sanitary inspections. Dur
ing the Spanish.American war he was
selected as the head of a board to study
the causation and spread of typhoid in
the camps of the volunteer troops, and
the report of the commission, a monu-
mental work, is now in course of pub
LEGATION by the Government, and is
expected to serve as basis for future
study of the epidemiology of typhoid
fever.
His great work in Cuba, in demon
strating that yellow fever is transmit
ted by the mosquito, is thus briefly
described in a memoir published last
year by the Walter Reed Memorial
Association of Washington.
SENT TO CUBA TO STUDY YELLOW FE-
YER.
SIN June, 1900, Major Reed was sent
to Cuba as president of a board to |
study the infectious diseases of the
country, but more especially yellow
fever. Associated with him were Act |
ing Assistant Surgeons James Carroll, |
Jesse w. Lazear and A. Agramonte.
At this time the American authorities
in Cuba had for a year and a half en-
deavored to diminish the disease and |
of the Cuban towns by gen.
eral sanitary work, but while the
health of the population showed dis
tinct Improvement and the mortality
had greatly diminished, yellow fever
had beer entirely unaffected !
by these measures. In fact, owing to
the large number of non-immune for.