had to be used in Havana. It is
impossible here to go into the mass of detail in the appointing of
commissions to carry out the different sanitary works that were
required in Havana and all over the Island {140} in cities, towns and
country districts. But, familiar as it now is, there will never be an
account of this work which has made Cuba one of the healthiest places
to live in either in or out of the tropics--there will never be a
description so short that it cannot tell of the work of the unselfish,
altruistic group of physicians who solved the yellow fever problem for
all time. It gives him who writes even now something of a thrill to
tell a little of it again and to pay tribute to the man who organized
the work and to the men who carried it out under his unfailing support
and encouragement. It is the greatest achievement of medicine since
the discovery of the smallpox vaccine. It is one of the bright spots
in the history of mankind.

Here it is told best by the organizer of it in his official language
with all the reserve and reticence that go with all the writing he has
ever issued. Between the lines one reads the story of a hundred cases
of bravery as great as that required by any fighter in the world, a
hundred instances of self-sacrifice and risk willingly given in those
fever-stricken places and quarantined hospitals, freely {141} offered
that those who came after might be saved from the black cloud which
then hung over all tropical and semi-tropical countries.

In the Spring and summer of 1900 a yellow fever epidemic broke out in
Havana and in many parts of the Island. All the sanitary methods known
to man seemed to have no effect upon it. Nothing seemed to do much
good.

At this point General Wood, knowing of the theory of Dr. Findlay that
yellow fever was transmitted by the bite of a mosquito and at his
wits' end to know what step to take next, received notice that a
commission consisting of Drs. Reed, Carroll and Lazaer had been
appointed to make a thorough study of the disease at first hand and
report to him. "After several preliminary investigations Dr. Lazaer
submitted himself as a subject for an experiment for the purpose of
demonstrating that the yellow fever could be transmitted in this way.
He was inoculated with an infected mosquito, took the fever and died.
Dr. Carroll was also bitten and had a serious case of yellow fever,
but fortunately recovered.

"The foregoing was the situation when