Evening star., 1940-12-08
Medical Science Left Permanent Imprint the Profession

these men belongs much of TIL
credit for sfbjugating one of the
greatest scourges of the human race
yellow fever-as much a danger il
the Southern United States as in
South America
Havana long had been a yellow
fever focus, looked upon as one
of the pest holes of the world
Carlos Finlay was practicing
physician. educated in France and
in the United States. AS early
as 1878 he started his studies of
yellow jack" on the basis of the
latest germ theories Of disease which
he had acquired in Paris.
In 1881 there was an Inter
national Sanitary Congress in
Washington. Dr.. Finlay was
named by the Spanish government
to represent Cuba. Before this
congress he presented a paper which
is one of the mileStoneS of medical
history. He had accumulated a
great oeal of evidence to prove
that the fatal fever was not trans
mitted directly from man to man.
but only through the intermediary
of some insect.
At this time. with medical cau-
ton, he did not mention the insect
he suspected and thus, may have
missed some of the glory which
was his due. A year later he def
nitely named the mosquito. A few
years later his thesis was brilliantly
verified by the United States Com
mission headed by Dr. Walter Reed
OF the Army Medical Corps and
yellow fever was placed definitely
under control. The menace of the
disease, however, was not lifted
from the world and it still re-
mains a lurking threat. Dr. Finlay
died II 1915. His son is now one
OF the leading physicians in Cuba,
and was a member of the Cuban
delegation TO the Pan-American
Scientific Congress which met here
this year.
Brazilian Expert.
Oswaldo Goncalves Cruz was a
Brazilian doctor, educated in Paris.
When the Brazilian government
planned to establish a serum inSti-
tute it communicated with the
Pasteur Institute, offering the post
of director to the man the faculty
thought best fitted for the post.
The answer was that the best man
in Paris was Cruz, himself a Bra
lillian.
Yellow fever was constant
threat in Rio. In 1900 the work
of Finlay and Walter Reed was
still too new to be accepted by old
style physicians. Cruz definitely
proposed to rid the city of yellow
jack within three years He was
named minister of health, in the
face of much opposition, and pro-
ceeded to clear Rio de Janeiro of
mosquitoes. All this was not ac-
complished without bitter fights,
but so great was the contribution of
Cruz success that he became one
of the national heroes. The United
States probably owes as much to
him as does Brazil.
Cruz, who died in 1917, was the
founder of an institute for the
study of infectious and tropical
diseases which has become world
famous. He is today the patron
saint of Brazilian medicine which
is coming more and more to the
front each year. There are few
medical meetings in the United
States at which some piece of
Brazilian research work is not pre-
sented.
Closely associated with the name
of Oswaldo Cruz is that of his
immediate successor as head OF
the Cruz Institute, Carlos Chagas.
who died only six years ago, after
becoming one of the leading figures
in world medicine. He identified
several new species of disease-bear-
ing mosquitoes and was the dis
coverer of a new. insect-carried
tropical disease which now bears
his name.