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But the non-immunes there protect themselves by doing their business in Rio during the day and going back at night to Petropolis, twenty-five miles inland and twenty-five hundred feet higher, where they are safe, for no Stegomyia have ever been found there.
Since the light occurrence of yellow fever in this State in 1905, a very vigorous war has been kept up against Stegomyia, and the ordinances of all Louisiana cities and principal towns require the draining of all breeding places of this mosquito and the constant oiling or screening of all cisterns or other water containers. The result is this species is very rare.
This position is opposed to all the recent work of the scientific bureaus of the Government and to the general experience of mankind. A physician who disbelieved in vaccination would not be the right man to handle an epidemic of smallpox, nor should we leave a doctor skeptical about the transmission of yellow fever by the Stegomyia mosquito in charge of sanitation at Havana or Panama.
In some of these various species of Stegomyia are abundant, and in some Stegomyia calopus is the most abundant and troublesome form. All the natives of these islands are non-immune because there has never been any yellow fever there. Unless extraordinary care is taken the disease will be introduced there sooner or later and the results are sure to be most appalling.
One spring day, after the star member had read a paper on the "Lake Poets," and another member had rendered a Chopin étude on the piano, they began to talk about the stegomyia mosquito, and what a pity it was that the annual danger of contagion and death from the bite of that insect had to be faced all over again.
During a warm spell in the winter or if the room is kept warm they may come out for a meal almost any time. Ranking next in importance to Anopheles as a disseminator of disease and in fact solely responsible for a more dreaded scourge, is the species of mosquito now known as Stegomyia calopus.
The following extract from his reply will show something of the work that is still being done there. "I am afraid we cannot furnish specimens of Stegomyia, in spite of the fact that Louisiana is supposed to be the most favorable home of this species in the South.
While all this is very probable in the light of what we know of the disease and the way in which other diseases caused by similar organisms may be transmitted by the parent to the offspring, yet the most conservative investigators are waiting for further proof. The whole fight against yellow fever, then is directed, as we have seen, against the mosquito, Stegomyia calopus.
Now if we kill practically all of the Stegomyia so that these children do not have this fever there will be developed, in due time, a population most of whom are non-immune. This freedom from the disease for some time will allow us to grow careless in regard to fighting the mosquitoes.
This position is opposed to all the recent work of the scientific bureaus of the Government and to the general experience of mankind. A physician who disbelieved in vaccination would not be the right man to handle an epidemic of smallpox, nor should we leave a doctor skeptical about the transmission of yellow fever by the Stegomyia mosquito in charge of sanitation at Havana or Panama.
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