La Roche: Yellow Fever, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1855.
Many scientific discoveries have afforded brilliant illustrations of
method in research, but in the work of these men one is at a loss to
know which to admire more--the remarkable accuracy and precision of the
experiments, or the heroism of the men--officers and rank and file of
the United States Army; they knew all the time that they were playing
with death, and some of them had to pay the penalty! The demonstration
was successful--beyond peradventure--that yellow fever could be
transmitted by mosquitoes, and equally the negative proposition--that it
could not be transmitted by fomites. An interval of twelve or more days
was found to be necessary after the mosquito has bitten a yellow fever
patient before it is capable of transmitting the infection. Lazear
permitted himself to be bitten by a stray mosquito while conducting his
experiments in the yellow fever hospital. Bitten on the thirteenth, he
sickened on the eighteenth and died on the twenty-fifth of September,
but not until he had succeeded in showing in two instances that
mosquitoes could convey the infection. He added another to the long list
of members of the profession who have laid down their lives in search
of the causes of disease.
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