Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/143

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
124
ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY


he prefers to take the chance of contracting it itentionally in the belief that he will receive * * * the greatest care and the most skillful medical service."

A further consideration was the payment of $100.00 in American gold and, in case of contracting yellow fever, an additional $100.00, to be paid to the subject if he survived; otherwise, to the person whom he designated. The subject bound himself not to leave the camp during the period of the experiments, forfeiting all benefits if he should do so. 27[1]

Some of the Havana newspapers "have abused us soundly and have charged us with all kinds of inhumanity and barbarity," Reed wrote General Sternberg on 26 November, but, he added, "the Spanish consul, a most courteous and intelligent gentleman, assures us that we shall have his support, as long as we do not use minors and the individual gives his written consent * * *." 28[2]

Soldier Volunteers

Although no United States soldier was asked to submit to the inoculation tests, Pvt. John R. Kissinger, of the hospital detachment, and John J. Moran, a civilian clerk in the headquarters of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, astonished and delighted Reed by volunteering, upon the condition that they receive no money. There is an apocryphal story that Major Reed, upon receiving their unsolicited offer, which was renewed after the risks they ran had been carefullv explained to them, rose, touched his forehead, and said, "Gentlemen, I salute you." The story of the salute is probably not true in detail, but he did say in his published account of the experiment that "in my opinion this exhibition of moral courage has never been surpassed in the annals of the Army of the United States." 29[3]

The remark was made of Private Kissinger, who was the first to become the subject of experiment and to contract yellow fever, but the same remark would apply to Moran, who volunteered along with him, and to the other 12 who volunteered to subject themselves to inoculation with fever — Dr. Robert P. Cooke of Virginia, James A. Andrus of Pennsylvania, Thomas M. England of Ohio, Levi E. Folk of South Carolina, Wallace W. Forbes of Illinois, James F. Hanberry of South Carolina, James Hildebrand of Georgia, Warren G. Jernegan of Florida, William Olsen of Wisconsin, Charles G. Sontag of

  1. 27 An original contract, in Spanish, signed by Walter Reed and Vicente Presedo, with an English translation, is displayed in the Medical Museum of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
  2. 28 Truby. op. cit., p. 153.
  3. 29 Baltimore Address, p. 205.