Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-07-08

! " edtHSIs grew dSlfes aHQ IEl II ttts.a
deadly work One CT The .eH estai-
lished facts now is thar mos
quitoes las well as tier iarydaj
have the power cf lIyDe-aat .ls
through long. even Arctic wia.ers, All
becoming active upon the return vi
warm weather Those contaminated
at the commencement Of their hyber-
nation retain their infection and pow
ler to transmit il to man upon their
return TO active life.
The Campaign In Cuba
.Tnis perfect solution OF the Ply
mouth riddle and other similar rid
dies we owe TO some wonderful dis
eoyeries and demonstrations made n
Cuba by certain trained scientific in
yestigators during the last few years.
The pioneer OF this work was DR.. Car
los ]. Finlay. distinguished practice
ing physician of Havana, Cuba, born
in Puerto Principe, Cuba, but Brit
ish subject. Nevertheless, he was an
American by education, being a grad
uate of jefferson College, Philadel-
phia. AS far back as 1881, this pio-
neer announced to the world his dis
coYery that yellow fever was trans
mitted from man to man by the mos
quito. He not only discovered that
the mosquito was the causative agent
of yellow fever, but out of the 500
and more. species OF that insect he de-
tected and exposed Stegomyia calo-
pus, then called Culex fasciatus, as
the criminal. DR.. Finlays numerous
papers, read before medical associa-
lions and persistently published at
home and abroad. were received with
strange incredibly by the medical
profession His eonfreres not only
rejected his ideas but went so far as
to ridicuIe them and him, his Hava-
nese colleagues frequently calling him
q loco" Nevertheless, DIR. Finlay,
with logged Anglo-Saxon persistency
kept up his experiments, and contin-
ued to maintain that he was produc-
ing cases of yellow fever by applying
to non immunes Stegomyia mosque
toes which had stung yellow-fever pa
tients. Moreover, as far back as 1884
he read a paper before the lnterna-
tional Medical Congress at Buda-
pesth, in which he laid down. certain
rules for controlling and stopping ep-
idemics of yellow fever practically
the same as those which were later
used with such brilliant success by
Gorgas, both in Havana and Panama.
Isn't it strange that this paper OF
DR.. Finlay's, which was published In
the official transactions of the con-
gress mentioned above, made little or
no impression? DR.. Finlay expert
<ofof1xy II -or FiV6d
Catholic priests, who, feeling that
they, as future residents of Cuba,
would be sure to have yellow fever,
allowed themselves to be bitten by
his mosquitoes. The priests would
come down with yellow fever all
right, but, as DR.. Finlay could not
completely control their movements,
he could not prove to our satisfac-
ton that they might not have con-
tracted the disease in some other
way.
This was about the status of the
mosquito-yellow-fever situation at the
beginning of the Spanish American
war, 1898. Yellow fever had existed
in Cuba since 1761--its principal
world focus being Havana-and had
been particularly deadly among the
Spanish troops toward the close Of
the Spanish rule. When the Ameri-
cans took possession of the city the
sanitary condition was about as bad
as could be. well imagined. SMALL
pOx was almost as prevalent and fatal
as yellow fever; typhoid fever, dyser-
terry, CHAMBERS and numerous other in
lection diseases were rife. The
American health authorities, under
Hajor-now Colonel-Gorgas, went
to work, hammer and tongs, to get
the city cleaned up and in a habitableI
condition. Within 1899 our progress
had been quite satisfactory small
pox, typhoid fever and other prevent
able diseases had been reduced to a
minimum, even yellow fever had al
most disappeared; by the end of 1899
We had begun to think that We knew
how to control yellow fever. We
learned afterward. to our cost. that
the lulI in the disease was due to lack
of fresh material for it to feed upon
tho constant influx of Spanish i'm
migrants and Spanish soldiers having
been cut off by the war. Early in
1900, when we We're congratulating
ourselves that we had made Havana
about the cleanest city in the world.
We were startled by sharp epidemic
Of yellow fever. During 1900 there
were. 1914 cases with three hundred
and ten deaths. In November of that
year there were IA cases with o.
deaths This showed that the ener-
getic sanitary work We had done had
had practically no effect upon yellow
fever; although it had banished pref
" much every other disease. This
epidemic of 1900 was caused by the
fact that large number of non-im-
munes. Spanish immigrants and
Americans lsoldiers and ciYilians)
lad poured into HaYana.
In the early summer Of 1900 com
mission of United States army medical
officers was sent from Washington To
Havana to investigate yellow fever
This commission, composed OF four
medical officers, Major Walter Reed
surgeon United States army, and Act
ing Assistant Surgeons James Carroll.