A Case of Yellow Fever
On August 27, 1900, U.S. Army physician James Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever. Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping his colleague, Army pathologist Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes transmit this often-deadly disease.
Prior to these findings, epidemics of yellow fever were common in the American South. Uncertain of how the disease was transmitted, many people would leave the South for the summer, the season in which the epidemics were most common, returning after the first frost.
During the 1888 yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida, the government offered railroad transportation out of the area. In a 1940 interview, William F. Hawley describes the scene of panic at the train station:
[The trains] were packed to the limit, even the roofs of the cars [were] crowded with terrified citizens…Some people in their haste left their homes with fires burning, food in preparation for the noonday meal, and doors wide open.
[William F. Hawley]. Rose Shepherd, interviewer; Arlington, Florida, June 24, 1940. American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1940. Manuscript Division
The Jacksonville epidemic began in the Mayflower Hotel which was “condemned and ordered burned to the ground,” according to Mr. Hawley. Many remedies were tried, such as burning barrels of tar in the street to disinfect the air and spraying a mixture of copper, sulfur, and lime in the homes of the infected.
Even doctors were at a loss for a means of stopping the spread of yellow fever. In the 1939 interview Ruby Beach, Mrs. Scull remembered that during the Jacksonville epidemic, Dr. Wiley, president of the Board of Health, warned her and her sister not to go into the room with their ill mother. “The surest way possible for you to get the fever is to go near her bed,” he warned. Her sister astonished the doctor by reporting, “I’ve slept there two nights, and I am all right.”
Learn More
- After Doctors Reed and Carroll’s discovery, effective ways were found to combat mosquitoes and the disease they transmitted. Search on the term Walter Reed in the Horydczak Collection to see images of the medical facility named in Dr. Reed’s honor.
- Search on yellow fever in the American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1940 interviews to find more stories.
- Search Chronicling America, a collection of historic American newspapers, on yellow fever or Walter Reed to find articles about Major Reed’s medical research on yellow fever as well the measures developed to combat and control the disease as a result.
- Search on yellow fever in Cornell University Library’s Making of America: PeriodicalsExternal collection for a wealth of articles that touch on the effect of the disease on everyday life.
- Search on the term Walter Reed in Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey to find black-and-white images of Dr. Walter Reed’s birthplace and data pages about the man and his home.
- View a summary of The Great FeverExternal from the PBS American Experience series for more information about the groundbreaking research of Major Walter Reed and other medical experts to combat this deadly disease.
- Search on the term laboratory in the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection to find images of medical, pharmaceutical, and other laboratories of the mid-twentieth century.
- Search across the Library’s website to find information about the health crisis of our time. Try searching on keywords such as COVID or pandemic to discover the resources the Library is compiling on these topics.