had died of the disease yielded no trace of the organism so, quite early in the investigation, the Sanarelli theory as to the cause of the disease was discarded. 14 [1]
Reed, in fact, was to be criticized, in the clear light of knowledge after the fact, for the time spent on disproving the Sanarelli theory. With the unsolved problem before him, however, and especially with the knowledge that the Marine Hospital Service accepted Sanarelli's claims, it is hard to see how Reed could have done otherwise than make the most thorough test possible of all approaches to the mystery of the cause and propagation of yellow fever.
At any rate, little time was lost, for even while the cultures were being tested and the autopsies performed, preparations went ahead for trying other approaches. The "search for the specific agent of yellow fever," in Dr. Reed s words, was not to be abandoned but was "to be given secondary consideration, until we had first definitely learned something about the way or ways in which the disease was propagated from the sick to the well." It was regarded "as of the highest importance that the agency of an intermediate host, such as the mosquito, should either be proven or disproven." 15[2]
Reed's attention had been drawn to the possibility of the mosquito as a transmitter of disease by the then recent work of Ronald Ross, of the British Indian Medical Service, in demonstrating that the Anopheles mosquito carried the plasmodium causing malaria between birds, while Sir Patrick Manson demonstrated that the bite of an infected mosquito could cause malaria in man. To the "brilliant work of Ross and the Italian observers"— Grassi, Bastianelh, Bignani, and others — Reed expressed his indebtedness. 16[3]
Coming closer to the problem of an intermediate host for the cause of yellow fever, Dr. Reed was impressed by the observations of Surgeon Henry Rose Carter of the Marine Hospital Service, made during an outbreak of yellow fever in Mississippi in 1898 and published in the New Orleans Medical Journal
- ↑ 14 Reed, W., Carroll, J., Agramonte, A., and Lazear, J. W.: The Etiology of Yellow Fever. A Preliminary Note. Philadelphia Medical Journal 6: 790-796, 27 October 1900.
- ↑ 15 Baltimore Address, p. 203.
- ↑ 16 (1) Reed et al., Philadelphia Medical Journal, 6 (1900), p. 791. (2) Reed, W.: Recent Researches Concerning the Etiology, Propagation and Prevention of Yellow Fever, by the United States Army Commission. Journal of Hygiene 2: 107, April 1902. Ross had demonstrated the role of the mosquito as the intermediate host to the plasmodium of malaria in 1897. The year before, 1896, Major Reed had reported to The Surgeon General upon a malaria epidemic at Washington Barracks (now Fort Lesley J. McNair) and Fort Myer, Va. By careful epidemiological investigation, he had ruled out the possibility of drinking water as a cause and concluded that the fevers were due to "emanations from the Potomac flats. As Col. Hugh R. Gilmore, Jr., Curator of the Medical Museum, put it, Reed "correctly implicated airborne 'emanations' — but the 'emanations' had wings!" In Gilmore, H. R., Jr.: Malaria at Washington Barracks and Fort Myer: Survey by Walter Reed. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 29: 346-351 (July-August) 1955.
