Yellow fever : its transmission by means of the Culex mosquito / by Charles Finlay.

  • Carlos Juan Finlay
Date:
[1938]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Yellow fever : its transmission by means of the Culex mosquito / by Charles Finlay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Yellow Fever: Its ‘Transmission by. Means of the Culex Mosquito BY CHARLES FINLAY, M.D. Published in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, n.s. 92: 395-409, 1886 ¥N THE month of May, of last year, when the yellow fever epidemic was commencing at Vera sts ay ry’ Yo BS prisoners with the dried residue of yellow fever iy )} urine. In two of the six, the local symptoms | “% of the inoculation were immediately followed by those of fatal yellow fever, and, a few days later, both died on the same day (Carmona, Lecons sur [étiologie et la prophylaxie de la fievre jaune, p. 265). This unfortunate result agrees with the views I have entertained since 1881, viz., that whereas the disease is not spontaneously transmissible by infection through the air nor by contact, it can be communicated by inoculation. In searching for a natural agent capable of fulfilling this condi- tion, I was led to fix upon the Culex mosquito as the most likely one. Before submitting, however, the experimental results which, so far, appear to confirm my theory, it will be necessary to describe the habits and peculiarities of this insect. Most books on natural history inform us that only the female mosquito stings human beings and animals for the purpose of sucking their blood, the males feeding only on sweet Juices or nutrient liquids. The fecundated females, in cold climates, hibernate during winter, in a state of apparent death, in dark 613
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