under controlled conditions designed to test the truth of the theory beyond any question.
Meanwhile, Reed felt warranted in making a report of results as far as the work had gone. This he did, in person, in a paper, "The Etiology of Yellow Fever: a Preliminary Note," read before the American Public Health Association, meeting at Indianapolis from 22 October to 26 October 1900, and published in the Philadelphia Medical Journal of 27 October. The "Preliminary Note" disposed of the bacillus icteroides of Sanarelli, and drew the flat conclusion that "The mosquito acts as the intermediate host for the parasite of yellow fever."
Reed's preliminary report got a rather cool reception, and aroused some opposition, notably from Dr. Eugene Wasdin of the Marine Hospital Service, who was committed to the Sanarelli thesis, and who attacked Reed's conclusions in the Medical Journal of November 17. 25[1]
Studies at Camp Lazear
Before that time, Reed was back in Cuba and had plunged into the work of planning and providing a camp— Camp Lazear, it was appropriately called— where tests of the transmission of yellow fever could be carried on under conditions controlled with certainty. A site was picked near Columbia Barracks but far enough away from habitation to insure isolation. The distinguishing feature of the camp, located at Quemados de Marianao, a suburb of Havana, was two small frame buildings, each 14 by 20 feet, located on the opposite slopes of a little valley about 80 yards from each other and the same distance from the camp proper. One, the "Infected Mosquito Building," was designed to test the mosquito theory; the other, the "Infected Clothing Building," was designed to test the currently accepted theory of infection by contact with the clothing, bedding, and other articles which had been in close contact with yellow fever patients (fig. 45). 26[2]
Camp Lazear was put in operation on 20 November 1900, manned by a service detachment of volunteers— two doctors, one an immune; one hospital steward, an immune; nine privates of the hospital corps, one of whom was immune; and an immune ambulance driver. A strict quarantine was established, with no one except the four immunes permitted to enter or leave the isolated camp.
