The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1908-08-14
MOSQUITO-BORN DISEASES
Cause of Yellow Fever and Mala-
ria Known in 1858.
Science. July pa


Dr.. Agromonte, in an article
quoted from the Havana Cronica
Medico by the British Medical Jour
nal, calls attention TO the pioneer
work Of Louis Daniel Beauperthuy,
born in Guadeloupe in 1908. Wrl-
ting in the Gaceta Official de Gu
mana in May, 1888, Beauperthuy
says:
TO the work | undertook (health
officer in yellow fever epidemic IN
Cumana) | brought the knowledge
gained during fourteen years mi
croscopic observation of the blood
and secretions in every type OF fe-
yer. These observations We're OF
great service to me in recognizing
the cause of yellow fever and the
fitting methods of combating this
terrible malady. With regard to
nv Investigations on the etiology of
yellow fever | must abstain for the
present from making them public.
They form part of a prolonged
study. the results of which are facts
SO novel and so far removed from
all hitherto accepted doctrines that
| ought not to publish them with
out adducing fuller evidence in sup
port. Moreover, am sending to
the Academic de Paris a communi-
cation which contains summary
of the observations | have made up
to the present, the object of which
is to secure the priority of my dis
coveries concerning the cause of fe-
vers in general.
The affection known as yellow fe-
yer or blaek vomit is due to the
same cause as that producing inter
mittent fever
yellow fever Is in no way to be
regarded as a contagious disease.
The disease develops itself under
conditions which favor the develop
ment of mosquitoes.
The mosquito plunges its probos-
els into the skin and introduces a
poison which has properties akin to
that of snake venom. 1t softens
the red blood corpuscles, causes
their rupture and facilitates the
mixing of the coloring matter with
the serum.
The agents of this yellow fever
infection are of a considerable num-
Der Of species, not all being Of
equally lethal character. The zan-
cudo bobo, with legs striped with
white, may be regarded as more or
less the house haunting kind.
Remittent, intermittent and per
nicious fevers, Just like yellow few
er, have as their cause an animal,
or vegeto-animal virus, the intro
ductIon of which into the human
body is brought about by inocula-
ton.
Intermittent fevers are grave IN
proportion to the prevalence OF
mosquitoes, and disappear or lose
much of their severity in places
which, by reason of their elevation,
have few of these insects.
The expression winged snakes
employed by Herodotus is peculiar
ly applicable to the mosquito and
the result Of its bite on the human
organism.
Marshes do not communicate to
the atmosphere anything more than
! humidity, and the small amount OF
! hydrogen they give off does not
cause in man the slightest indispo-
sition in equatorial and intertropi-
cal regions renowned for their un-
healthiness. Nor is it the putres-
cence of the water that makes it un-
healthy, but the presence of mos
quitos.
1t was to the Gaceta Official de
/ Cumana that Beauperthy seems tc
/ have written most fully, but he
made more than one communica-
ton to the Academic des Sciences.
One of these, dated from Cumanar
Jan. Is, 1856, is entitled Re
searches into the Cause Of AsiatiC
Cholera and into that Of yellow
Fever and Marsh Fever, and il
this he says that as early as1S3s
his Investigations in unhealthy 10
calities in South America had con
WINGED him that the so-called marsl
fevers were due to a vegeto-anima
/ ,.;r,S i,oct,latad into man nv mos