WALTER REED.
A MEMOIR.

WALTER REED
A MEMOIR.

WASHINGTON, D. C.
P U B L I S H E D BY T H E W A L T E R R E E D M E M O R I A L ASSOCIATION.

1904.

WALTER REED.
A MEMOIR.

It is given to but few scientific men to lay bare a secret of nature
materially affecting the prosperity of nations, and the lives, fortunes
and happiness of thousands. Fewer still succeed in so quickly
convincing brother scientists and men in authority of the truth of
their discoveries that their own eyes behold the glorious result of
their labor.
Of the fifty-one years of Walter Reed's industrious, blamele'ss
life, twelve only were spent in the study of the special branch of
science in which he became famous, but his name now stands
with those of Jenner, leister and Morton, as among the benefactors of humanity.
Walter Reed was born in Gloucester CountylUfirginia, September 13, 1851, the son of the Rev. Lemuel Sutton Reed and Pharaba
White, his w ife
The circumstances of his family were modest, and some of the
years of his boyhood were spent in a much troubled section of the
south during the great civil war. He acquired, however, a good
preliminary education, and at an age when most boys are still in
the schoolroom, he began the study of medicine at the University of
Virginia, graduating as M. D. in 1868, when only seventeen years
old.
A second medical degree was received later from Bellevue Medical College, New York, and then came terms of service in the
Brooklyn City Hospital, and the City Hospital, BlackwelPs Island.
Before the age of twenty-one, Reed was a district physician in
New York city, and at twenty-two one of the five inspectors of the
Board of Health of Brooklyn.
He entered the Army of the United States as Assistant Surgeon
with the rank of First lieutenant, in 1875, and for the next eigh-

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teen years, with the usual varying fortunes of a young medical
officer of the army, he served in Arizona, Nebraska, Dakota, and
in the Southern and Eastern States.
According to the exigencies of the service he was moved frequently from station to station, everywhere recognized by men of
his own age as a charming and sympathetic companion, and by
older officers as an earnest and intelligent physician, whose industry, fidelity to duty, and singularly clear judgment, gave
brilliant promise for the future. In the poor cabins and dugouts
of the pioneers in the sparsely settled districts where he served
his flag, Reed was ever a messenger of healing and comfort. At
that time army posts on the frontier were usually remote and
with small garrisons. The young medical officer, generally the
only one at the station, was called upon by the settlers for miles
around. Without help, and with only such instruments and
medicines as could be hastily stuffed in his saddle-bag, he was
summoned to attend a fractured thigh, a child choking with
diphtheria, or, most trying of all, a complicated child-birth.
Such experience schools well in self-reliance, and in the formation of quick and accurate observation.
For a man like Reed, already an earnest student, no better
preparation could perhaps have been had. His earlier army service must have singularly tended to develop in him the very
qualities most necessary to his final success. To the end of his life
it was noticeable that even when he had long given up the practice;
of medicine for the work of the laboratory, he was nevertheless
unexcelled at the bedside for rapid unerring diagnosis and sound
judgment in treatment. So also were the series of experiments
which robbed yellow fever of its terrors especially remarkable for
simplicity, accuracy, and completeness, or they never would have
so quickly convinced the world of their truth. Too much reverence for accepted teachings, and too little experience in grappling
with difficulties unassisted, and they might never have been conceived or carried out.
In 1890, he was assigned to duty in Baltimore and remained
there over a year. Here he had the great advantage of workingin the laboratories of Johns Hopkins University and the happiness
of winning the close friendship of his distinguished teacher, Prof.
William H . Welch,

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In 1893, Reed was promoted surgeon with the rank of Majof,
and in the same year was detailed in Washington as Curator of
the Army Medical Museum and Professor of Bacteriology at the
newly organized Army Medical School. Here he worked industriously at his specialty and wrote many valuable monographs, all characterized by accuracy and originality. His
excellent judgment made him especially valuable in investigating the causes of epidemic diseases at military posts, and in
making sanitary inspections. He was, therefore, frequently
selected for such work, which with his duties as teacher and
member of examining boards, occupied much of the time that
he would otherwise have spent in his laboratory. Here again
it seems that duties which must often have been irksome were
specially fitting him for his culminating work.
During the Spanish-American war the camps of the volunteer
troops in the United States were devastated by typhoid fever, and
Major Reed was selected as the head of a board to study the causation and spread of the disease. This immense task occupied more
than a year's time. With the utmost patience and accuracy the
details of hundreds of individual cases were grouped and studied.
The report of the commission, now in course of publication by the
Government, is a monumental work which must always serve as
a basis for future study of the epidemiology of typhoid fever.
The most original and valuable work of the board is the proof
that the infection of typhoid fever is spread in camps by the common fly, and by contact with patients and infected articles, clothing, tentage and utensils, as well as by contaminated drinking
water.
In June, 1900, Major Reed was sent to Cuba as president of a
board to study the infectious diseases of the country, but more
especially yellow fever. Associated with him were Acting Assistant Surgeons James Carroll, Jesse W. I,azear, and A. Agramonte.
At this time the American authorities in Cuba had for a year
and a half endeavored to diminish the disease and mortality of
the Cuban towns, by general sanitary work, but while the health
of the population showed distinct improvement and the mortality
had greatly diminished, yellow fever apparently had been entirely unaffected by these measures. In fact, owing to the large
number of non-immune foreigners, the disease was more fre-

6
qtient than Usual in Havana and in Quemados near the camp of
American troops, and many valuable lives of American officers
and soldiers had been lost.
Reed was convinced from the first that general sanitary measures
alone would not check the disease, but that its transmission was
probably due to an insect.
The fact that malarial fever, caused by an animal parasite in
the blood, is transmitted from man to man through the agency
of certain mosquitoes had been recently accepted by the scientific
world; also several years before, Dr. Carlos Finlay, of Havana, had
advanced the theory that a mosquito conveyed the unknown
cause of yellow fever, but did not succeed in demonstrating the
truth of his theory.
Dr. H . R. Carter, of the Marine Hospital Service, had written a
paper showing that although the period of incubation of yellow
fever was only five days, yet a house to which a patient was carried
did not become infected for from fifteen to twenty days.
To Reed's mind this indicated that the unknown infective
agent has to undergo a period of incubation of from ten to fifteen
days, and probably in the body of a biting insect*
Up to this time the most generally accepted theory as to the
causation of yellow fever was that of Sanarelli, who claimed that
the Bacillus icteroides discovered by him was the specific agent
of the disease. Major Reed, in association with Dr. Carroll, had,
however, already demonstrated that this bacillus was one widely
disseminated in the United States, and bore no special relation to
yellow fever.
In June, July and August, 1900, the commission gave their
entire attention to the bacteriological study of the blood of yellow
fever patients, and the post-mortem examination of the organs of
those dying with the disease. In twenty-four cases where the
blood was repeatedly examined, as well as in eleven carefully
studied autopsies, Bacillus icteroides was not discovered, nor was
there any indication of the presence in the blood of a specific
cause of the disease.
Application was made to General Leonard Wood, the Military
Governor of Cuba, for permission to conduct experiments on
non-immune persons, and a liberal sum of money requested for

1
the purpose of rewarding volunteers who would submit themselves to experiment.
It was indeed fortunate that the military governor of Cuba was
a man who by his breadth of mind and special scientific training
could readily appreciate the arguments of Major Reed as to the
value of the proposed work.
Money and full authority to proceed were promptly granted,
and to the everlasting glory of the American soldier, volunteers
from the army offered themselves for experiment in plenty, and
with the utmost fearlessness.
Before the arrangements were entirely completed, Dr. Carroll, a
member of the commission, allowed himself to be bitten by a mosquito that twelve days previously had filled itself with the blood
of a yellow fever patient. He suffered from a very severe attack,
and his was the first experimental case. Dr. L,azear also experimented on himself at the same time, but was not infected. Some
days later, while in the yellow fever ward, he was bitten by a mosquito and noted the fact carefully. He acquired the disease in its
most terrible form and died a martyr to science, and a true hero.
No other fatality occurred among the brave men who, in the
course of the experiments, willingly exposed themselves to the
infection of the dreaded disease.
A camp was especially constructed for the experiments about
four miles from Havana, christened Camp I^azear in honor of the
dead comrade. The inmates of the camp were put into most rigid
quarantine and ample time was allowed to eliminate any possibility
of the disease being brought in from Havana.
The personnel consisted of three nurses and nine non-immunes,
all in the military service, and included two physicians.
From time to time Spanish immigrants, newly arrived, were
brought in directly from the immigrant station; a person not
known to be immune was not allowed to leave camp, or ii lie did
was forbidden to return.
The most complete record was kept of the health of every man
to be experimented upon, thus eliminating the possibility of any
other disease than yellow fever complicating the case.
The mosquitoes used were specially bred from the eggs and kept
m a building screened by wire netting. When an insect was
wanted for an experiment it was taken into a yellow fever hospi-

£
tal and allowed to fill itself with the blood of a patient; afterward
at varying intervals from the time of this meal of blood it was
purposely applied to non-immunes in camp.
In December five cases of the disease were developed as the
result of such applications ; in January, three, and in February,
two, making in all ten, exclusive of the cases of Drs. Carroll and
I^azear. Immediately upon the appearance of the first recognized
symptoms of the disease, in any one of these experimental cases,
the patient was taken from Camp I^azear to a yellow fever hospital,
one mile distant. Every person in camp was rigidly protected
from accidental mosquito bites, and not in a single instance did
yellow fever develop in the camp, except at the will of the experimenters.
The experiments were conducted at a season when there was
the least chance of naturally acquiring the disease, and the mosquitoes used were kept active by maintaining them at a sumrner
temperature.
A completely mosquito-proof building was divided into two
compartments by a wire screen partition ; infected insects were
liberated on one side only. A brave non-immune entered and remained long enough to allow himself to be bitten several times.
He was attacked by yellow fever, while two susceptible men in
the other compartment did not acquire the disease, although
sleeping there thirteen nights. This demonstrates in the simplest
and most certain manner that the infectiousness of the building
was due only to the presence of the insects.
Every attempt was made to infect individuals by means of
bedding, clothes, and other articles that had been used and soiled
by patients suffering with virulent yellow fever.
Volunteers slept in the room with and handled the most filthy
articles for twenty nights, but not a symptom of yellow fever was
noted among them, nor was their health in the slightest degree
affected. Nevertheless they were not immune to the disease, for
some of them were afterward purposely infected by mosquito bites.
This experiment indicates at once the useless ness of destroying
valuable property for fear of infection. Had the people of the
United States known this one fact a hundred years ago, an enormous amount of money would have been saved to householders.

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Besides the experimental cases caused by mosquito bite, four
non-immunes were infected by injecting blood drawn directly from
the veins of yellow fever patients in the first two days of the
disease, thus demonstrating the presence of an infectious agent in
the blood at this early period of the attack.
Even the blood serum of a patient, passed through a bacteria
proof filter, was found to be capable of causing yellow fever in
another person.
The details of the experiments are most interesting, but it
must here suffice to briefly sum up the principal conclusions of
this admirable board of investigators of which Reed was the master mind :
i. The specific agent in the causation of yellow fever
exists in the blood of a patient for the first three days of his
attack, after which time he ceases to be a menace to the
health of others.
2. A mosquito of a single species, Stegomyia fasciata, ingesting the blood of a patient during this infective period is
powerless to convey the disease to another person by its
bite until about twelve days have elapsed, but can do so
thereafter for an indefinite period, probably during the remainder of its life.
3. The disease can not in nature be spread in any other
way than by the bite of the previously infected Stegomyia.
Articles used and soiled by patients do not carry infection.
These conclusions pointed so clearly to the practical method of
exterminating the disease that they were at once accepted by the
sanitary authorities in Cuba, and put to the test in Havana,
where for nearly a century and a half, by actual record, the disease had never failed to appear annually.
In February, 1901, the Chief Sanitary Officer in Havana,
Major W. C. Gorgas, Medical Department, U. S. Army, instituted
measures to eradicate the disease, based entirely on the conclusions of the commission. Cases of yellow fever were required
to be reported as promptly as possible, the patient was at first
rigidly isolated, and immediately upon the report a force of men

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from the sanitary department visited the house. All the rooms
of the building and of the neighboring houses were sealed and
fumigated to destroy the mosquitoes present. Window and door
screens were put up, and after the death or recovery of the patient, his room was fumigated and every mosquito destroyed. A
war of extermination was also waged against mosquitoes in general, and an energetic effort was made to diminish the number
bred by draining standing water, screening tanks and vessels,
using petroleum on water that could not be drained, and in the
most systematic manner destroying the breeding places of the
insects.
When the warm season returned a few cases occurred, but by
September, 1901, the last case of yellow fever originated in
Havana, since which time the city has been entirely exempt from
the terrible disease, that had there kept stronghold for a hundred
and fifty years. Cases are now admitted into Havana from Mexican ports, but are treated under screens with perfect impunity,
in the ordinary city hospitals. The crusade against the insects
also caused a very large decrease in malarial fevers.
The destruction of the most fatal epidemic disease of the western hemisphere, in its favorite home city is but the beginning of
the benefit to mankind that may be expected to follow the work
of Reed and his associates. There can be no manner of doubt
should Mexico, Brazil, and the Central American Republics,
where the disease still exists, follow strictly the example set by
Havana, that yellow fever will become extinct and the United
States forever freed from the scourge, that has in the past slain
thousands of our citizens and caused the loss of untold
treasure.
More recent investigations into the cause and spread of yellow
fever have only succeeded in verifying the work of Reed and his
commission in every particular and in adding very little to our
knowledge of the disease.
Later researches by Guiteras in Havana, by the Public Health,
and Marine Hospital Service in Vera Cruz, and lastly by a delegation from the Pasteur Institute of Paris in Rio de Janeiro, all
confirm in the most convincing manner, both the accuracy and
comprehensiveness of the conclusions of the American commission. It has been well said that Reed's experiments " will always remain as models in the annals of scientific research, both

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for the exactness with which they were adapted to the points to
be proved, and the precautions taken that no experiment should
be vitiated by failure to exclude all possible sources of error.''
Appreciation of Reed's work was instant in the scientific
world. Honorary degrees from Harvard University and the University of Michigan were conferred upon him, learned societies
and distinguished men delighted to honor him, and after his
death Congress voted a special pension to his widow.
To the United States the value of his services cannot be estimated. Ninety times has yellow fever' invaded the country,
carrying death and destruction, leaving poverty and grief.
New Orleans, Memphis, Charleston, Galveston, Portsmouth,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and many smaller towns
have been swept by the disease.
The epidemic of 1853 c o s t New Orleans eight thousand lives,
that of 1793 wiped out ten per cent, of Philadelphia's population.
The financial loss to the United States in the one epidemic of
1878 was estimated as amounting to fifteen million three hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, but suffering, panic, fear,
and the tears of widows and orphans, can never be estimated.
Now, however, if yellow fever should again cross our southern
border, there need be no disturbance of commerce or loss of property in the slightest degree comparable with that which epidemics
in the past have caused.
The death of Major Reed took place November 23, 1902, in
Washington, from appendicitis. It is gratifying to think that,
although his country and the scientific world were deprived of one
from whose future services more benefit to humanity might reasonably be expected, nevertheless he was privileged before his life's
close to know that his discovery had been tested, and that a great
city was freed from her ancient foe, to know that his conscientious
work had contributed immeasureably toward the future prospects
of an infant republic, and even more to the welfare of his own
beloved country, whose flag he had served so faithfully.
In the National Capital and in the great cities of the United
States, there are stately monuments to the country's great ones.
Statues of warriors, statesmen and patriots stand as silent witnesses of a people's gratitude. Is there not room for the effigy of
Walter Reed, who so clearly pointed out to his fellow man the
way to conquer America's worst plague?
WALTER D. McCAW.