(6)
Army Med. Museum, June 27, 1901.
My dear Gorgas:
I thank you so much for your last kind and most interesting letter of June 13th. Really, my dear Dr., in spite of a few disagreeable things and people, when I think of the absence of yellow fever from Havana for a period of fifty days, I begin to feel like rejoicing that I ever was born! You are doing a splendid work for your corps and profession in Havana.
Sincerely, your friend,
Reed.
(7)
Army Med. Museum, Washington, July 29.
My dear Gorgas:
I was on the eve of writing to you, when your kind favor of the 20th inst. reached me. The news from Havana is simply delightful. I am willing to confess that my fears that physicians would fail to report cases of yellow fever to your office, and thus maintain foci of infection, were groundless. It shows that your acquaintance with the local conditions were much better than mine. That you have succeeded in throttling the epidemic appears to be beyond question, and is to your everlasting credit as an energetic Health Officer, who saw his opportunity and grasped it. A man of less discretion, enthusiasm and energy would have made a fiasco of it. Whereas, you, my dear Gorgas, availing yourself of the results of the work at Camp Lazear, have rid that pest hole, Havana, of her yellow plague! All honor to you my dear boy! Thank God that the Medical Department of the U. S. Army, which got such “a black eye” during the Spanish-American war, has during the past year accomplished work that will always remain to its eternal credit! I had seen in the papers report of the cases at Santiago de las Vegas. I am delighted that you have taken charge of the suppression of this outbreak. Of course, you will soon stamp it out, if you can enforce your regulations. I shall look forward with the greatest interest to your work there. Please keep me posted. I did not get your June Report, which I should like to have very much. Apropos of the outbreak at Santiago de las Vegas, I have concluded to have Carroll go to Havana, for the purpose, if he can get hold of any cases of yellow fever, of making a few observations on human beings, which will be a valuable guide to us at the present stage of our search for the parasite. I sincerely hope that he can succeed in getting hold of a few recently arrived immigrants for this purpose. I especially ask your kind assistance in this matter. I see that Gen. Wood has left Havana so that I am afraid that Carroll cannot get any money with which to pay the subjects of experimentation. Have you any funds with which they could be paid $1.00 per day? I think that you said that subjects could be obtained at that price. Carroll would like to do his work at Las Animas Hospital. Can that be arranged? He must start on his return by Sept. 20th, if possible. So that he has but little time in which to accomplish the task before. Still if he can draw blood from a few undoubted cases and can get a few subjects, it won’t take him long to decide the point. I wanted to come very much, but I have work here which I feel that I should not neglect. Else I should have certainly come down. I have been intending to ask you whether, in dealing with y. f. in Havana, this year, you have confined your work to simply protecting the sick against bites and destruction of mosquitoes; and have omitted all disinfection of bedding and clothing. I sincerely hope that this is true. I shall probably present, with Carroll, a paper to the next meeting of the American Public Health Association on the management and prevention of yellow fever, and I would so like to be able to say that the great work in Havana was accomplished without the disinfection of any bedding or clothing. Carroll leaves New York, with Pvt. Springer, on Ward Line leaving on Wednesday, August 6th. Pardon this lengthy letter. Please present my kindest regards to Mrs. Gorgas. Keep me informed of your progress at S. de las Vegas.