1 00:00:02,279 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: Hello and Happy Saturday. Walter Reid is getting a quick 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,600 Speaker 1: mentioned in an upcoming episode of the show, so we 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:12,040 Speaker 1: thought we would bring out our episode on him as 4 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: Today's Saturday Classic. He was a U. S. Army doctor 5 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: who did research into diseases like malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever. 6 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 1: This episode originally came out on November Enjoy Welcome to 7 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Ray 9 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 1: Cbe Wilson and I'm Holly Fried. So most people, at 10 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:45,200 Speaker 1: least in the United States have probably at least heard 11 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: of Walter Read, if only for the name of the 12 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 1: Army Medical Center before it became kind of notorious due 13 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: to a really huge neglect scandal in the late two thousands. 14 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: It had previously made a name for itself as the 15 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: heart of military medicine in the United States. UM The 16 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 1: Army Medical Center actually closed in twleven and was replaced 17 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: by Walter Read National Military Medical Center. So it's probably 18 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: a surprise to no one that you know, the major 19 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,319 Speaker 1: military medical center in the United States was named for 20 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: an Army doctor, and that was Walter Read. Walter Reid 21 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 1: did truly ground breaking work into the causes and prevention 22 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,399 Speaker 1: of yellow fever, which was a hugely destructive disease to 23 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: the American military and to other militaries and to civilians 24 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: outside of the military world um, both within and outside 25 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: of the United States. But he really didn't do this 26 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:45,880 Speaker 1: all on his own. His accomplishments really built on a 27 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: foundation of other doctors and other researchers. But even so 28 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 1: it had a huge and drastic impact on public health 29 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: UH and on the American military's ability to work in 30 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: tropical locations which had previously been fraught with all kinds 31 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: of health problems. So Walter Reed was born on September 32 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: thirteenth of eighteen fifty one to Lemuel Sutton and Faraba 33 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,960 Speaker 1: White Reed. Lemuel was a Methodist minister, and Walter had 34 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: four older siblings, three brothers and one sister named Laura, 35 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: who was the oldest. Because the elder Read was a minister, 36 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: the family spent most of Walter's childhood moving from place 37 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: to place as the Methodist Church assigned him to different congregations. 38 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:34,040 Speaker 1: Walter's older brothers, two of them Tom and James, fought 39 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: for the South during the Civil War, which ran through 40 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:41,359 Speaker 1: Walter's early teenage. Years after the war was over, Lemuel 41 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: requested that he be moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. He wanted 42 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: his sons to be educated, and living in Charlottesville meant 43 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: that they could go to the University of Virginia, and 44 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: his request was indeed granted. Unfortunately, though, Walter's mother died 45 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,640 Speaker 1: not long after they arrived in Charlottesville, and she was 46 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: only forty one at that point, Walter was only fourteen, 47 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 1: and it might have been her death that prompted him 48 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,960 Speaker 1: to really throw himself into his studies. He was just 49 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: an exceptional student even before he started college. As sort 50 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: of a side note, his father also remarried pretty quickly, 51 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: and the rest of the family quickly became very fond 52 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,840 Speaker 1: of his new wife. Not long after his mother's death, Walter, 53 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: now fifteen at this point, started school at the University 54 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,360 Speaker 1: of Virginia. Students normally could not enroll until they were sixteen, 55 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: but exceptions were made if they had older brothers attending, 56 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: and two of Walter's three older brothers were already in 57 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: school there. Although it turned out that Walter was the 58 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: only one of them to graduate. He originally intended to 59 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,120 Speaker 1: study classics, but he soon made the move to the 60 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: medical program instead. This actually was largely due to financial 61 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: and time reasons. It was faster and thus cheaper to 62 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 1: get an m d than an m A, which probably 63 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: seems extremely strange to people who are familiar with how 64 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: much it takes to get a medical degree today, and 65 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: Walter's medical training touches on a number of previous podcast subjects. 66 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: So cadevers used for study were provided to the school 67 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 1: by resurrectionists who stole them from local graveyards, which we 68 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: talked about in our episode on the Doctor's Riot, And 69 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,839 Speaker 1: like many of the other historical doctors we've talked about, 70 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,720 Speaker 1: Walter's first round of medical study included almost no practical 71 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: or clinical work. So when he graduated on July one, 72 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:35,880 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine, after just two years, and also as 73 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: one of the youngest people to do it, he had 74 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,600 Speaker 1: to pursue another degree so that he could get more 75 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:45,919 Speaker 1: actual hands on experience being a doctor. And first the 76 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 1: young doctor Reid went to New York, where he enrolled 77 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:52,440 Speaker 1: in Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He got another MD there 78 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,839 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy, and since he'd taken care of most 79 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 1: of his science and medical classes in Virginia. This was 80 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 1: mostly hands on study, and then he went on to 81 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:04,840 Speaker 1: do internships at hospitals around New York. A lot of 82 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 1: reads work during this time was with poor people in 83 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,919 Speaker 1: communities that didn't have a lot of medical resources, so 84 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:15,040 Speaker 1: he became increasingly aware of the kinds of diseases that 85 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:20,159 Speaker 1: really caused crises in the world of public health. Typhus, typhoid, 86 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: and yellow fever, for example, were all diseases that could 87 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: just ravage poor communities, and he started working to understand 88 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:30,600 Speaker 1: all of them. This was particularly true during the four 89 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: months he spent working at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn, 90 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: New York, in eighteen seventy one, because that was a 91 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: facility specifically for the poor. By eighteen seventy three, and 92 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: at this point he was only twenty two, Read joined 93 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,159 Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Board of Health as an assistant sanitary officer, 94 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 1: and this meant that he was too busy to start 95 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:52,680 Speaker 1: a private practice, and he was still so young that 96 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:56,400 Speaker 1: people didn't really seem to take him seriously. Reid started 97 00:05:56,400 --> 00:05:58,040 Speaker 1: a doubt that he would ever be able to make 98 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,080 Speaker 1: the kind of change he wanted, since he could not 99 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:02,279 Speaker 1: seemed to get people to respect his knowledge in the 100 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,760 Speaker 1: medical field. So seeing that he wasn't going to be 101 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:07,799 Speaker 1: able to make the kinds of strides that he really 102 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: wanted to, he eventually decided to join the Army Medical Corps, 103 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,599 Speaker 1: which were a multi day multidisciplinary affair in January of 104 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five. Afterward, he was commissioned as a first 105 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:23,839 Speaker 1: lieutenant at the age of twenty four. And as all 106 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,840 Speaker 1: of this uh professional development was going on, Reid had 107 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,080 Speaker 1: been courting a woman named Emily Lawrence, primarily through letters. 108 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,479 Speaker 1: He had met her while visiting family in Murfresboro, North Carolina, 109 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four, and he married her on April 110 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,599 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six. Before he left for Arizona Territory with 111 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: the Medical Corps, he actually dinnerd quite a lot about 112 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: getting married. He had some worries about what life was 113 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,359 Speaker 1: going to be like for the wife of a frontier 114 00:06:54,480 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: army doctor. Um, he just sort of seemed concerned earned 115 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, and so she had to 116 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:07,440 Speaker 1: do some convincing, including kind of implying that perhaps someone 117 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: else was interested in her, so maybe he ought to 118 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:15,400 Speaker 1: get his act together. Um. So, when he did finally 119 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,280 Speaker 1: propose it was pretty sudden, he basically proposed, and then 120 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: they wedged the wedding into a window of time when 121 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: he could actually make it to Murfreysboro to have the ceremony. 122 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: The newly weds didn't actually get to live together until 123 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:31,880 Speaker 1: the following November, when Emily met him in San Francisco 124 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: after taking a train which was a side note had 125 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: some sort of wreck along the way across the country. 126 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: And this was just the first of many separations they 127 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: would endure due to his work, and they wrote each 128 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: other volumes of letters during these times apart. It was 129 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,560 Speaker 1: also the first of many adventures in their marriage, because, 130 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 1: as we mentioned earlier, a lot of his early career 131 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: in the Medical Corps involved him being a frontier doctor. 132 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: He was moved from one post to another, and often 133 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: their existence was really difficult and isolated, and a lot 134 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,840 Speaker 1: of the hospitals that he worked from were basically temporary 135 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: structures meant to sort of serve a temporary need out 136 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 1: on the frontier. They eventually had a son named Walter 137 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:18,480 Speaker 1: Lawrence and a daughter named Emily, who they called Blossom. 138 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: Walter sor most likely delivered his son himself, as at 139 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,000 Speaker 1: that point they were stationed at for Apache on the frontier. 140 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: Also living with them for many years was a young 141 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: Native American girl named Susie, who Read had treated for 142 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: serious burns after some sort of inter tribal battle. Susie 143 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: wound up living with the family for about fifteen years. 144 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:42,839 Speaker 1: She was sort of a combination surrogate daughter and help 145 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:47,079 Speaker 1: around the house. At first, Read was a frontier Army doctor, 146 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,079 Speaker 1: as we said, moving from garrison to garrison mostly around 147 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: the American West, and these remote outposts did not have 148 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: the sorts of facilities or resources that Read needed to 149 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: continue his studies of bacteriology and pathology, so he requested 150 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: a leave of absence. As Tracy said, a lot of 151 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: these facilities were just temporary setups, so they were not 152 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: going to have a lab where he could really do 153 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: this work. Instead, he ended up transferred to Baltimore at 154 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: a couple of points, which allowed him to work at 155 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins University Hospital Pathology Laboratory. Two really monumental things 156 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 1: happened in Read's life in eight and we're going to 157 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: talk about them. After a brief word from a sponsor 158 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: to get back to Walter Read, a couple of big things, 159 00:09:37,559 --> 00:09:40,080 Speaker 1: as we said before the break changed in his life. 160 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:46,280 Speaker 1: In one George Miller Sternberg became the Surgeon General, and 161 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: to the new Surgeon General established the Army Medical school. 162 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: I did this kind of discreetly because Congress was reluctant 163 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: to spend money in the wake of a financial panic. 164 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: That year, Walter was named to the Army Medical Schools faculty. 165 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:05,080 Speaker 1: At this point, Read had been promoted up through the 166 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:08,320 Speaker 1: ranks in the military to major. He was also appointed 167 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: to be the curator of the Army Medical Museum and 168 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: had become a faculty member at Columbian University, which would 169 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 1: eventually become George Washington University. So after years of moving 170 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:22,320 Speaker 1: from place to place, he and the family went to Washington, 171 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: d c. And while he continued to travel for his work, 172 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 1: this put an end to constantly uprooting the family to 173 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: go to a new outpost. His early interest in public 174 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:35,760 Speaker 1: health played out in a study of the diseases that 175 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:40,800 Speaker 1: were most problematic to the military. So he studied typhoid, cholera, malaria, 176 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:43,160 Speaker 1: which was still pretty prevalent in the U S at 177 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:48,679 Speaker 1: the time, and yellow fever. In he studied a malaria 178 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:51,840 Speaker 1: outbreak that happened at Fort Myer and at the Washington 179 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: Army barracks. It was actually a fair amount of medical 180 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: work going on at this time that correctly identified the 181 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,959 Speaker 1: cause of laria as a parasite that was spread by mosquitoes. 182 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:06,760 Speaker 1: But you know, the world of information spread being much 183 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: uh more limited than it is today, this had not 184 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: caught hold everywhere yet, and Read in particular didn't think 185 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: that the mosquito was the culprit, in part because he 186 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: had spotted a number of errors in the latest paper 187 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,920 Speaker 1: that was promoting that connection. Instead, he thought it was 188 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:27,320 Speaker 1: bad air, which is not surprising. A lot of people 189 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,760 Speaker 1: thought it was bad air. And the world malaria comes 190 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: from Italian terms for bad air. And while he was 191 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:36,839 Speaker 1: definitely on the wrong track, he did dispel the idea 192 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 1: that malaria was water born. He pointed out that healthy 193 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:43,160 Speaker 1: people in Washington were using the same water source as 194 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:48,160 Speaker 1: six soldiers in Fort Meyer and that saw the highest 195 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: number of malaria cases in years, even though a water 196 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:56,120 Speaker 1: filtration program was in place. His research wound up looking 197 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,679 Speaker 1: at all kinds of factors and found all kinds of 198 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,040 Speaker 1: path turns and who got malaria and when. So, even 199 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,280 Speaker 1: though he never arrived at the correct conclusion from all 200 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:10,720 Speaker 1: of it, it was useful data to have. The Spanish 201 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:14,760 Speaker 1: American War broke out in and it only went on 202 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 1: for roughly three and a half months, and in the 203 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 1: end the United States had temporary control of Cuba and 204 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 1: had troops station there, But this came with a number 205 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,679 Speaker 1: of problems. Cuba's tropical climate was home to several diseases 206 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: that US troops had little or no natural resistance to. 207 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 1: Walter Read did extensive work pertaining to two of them, 208 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:40,000 Speaker 1: typhoid and yellow fever. During this period, the Secretary of 209 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:43,080 Speaker 1: War appointed a medical board that he directed to study 210 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:47,400 Speaker 1: diseases that were prevalent on Cuba. The Surgeon General also 211 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,920 Speaker 1: established a board specifically to study yellow fever, and for 212 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,959 Speaker 1: that board, Read was tapped to be head. He traveled 213 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 1: back and forth between Washington and Cuba several times over 214 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,720 Speaker 1: the next several years working with these diseases. UH first 215 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 1: typhoid fever, so not to be confused with typhus, which 216 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:09,559 Speaker 1: is spread by fleas. Typhoid fever is caused by bacteria 217 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:14,160 Speaker 1: Salmonilla typhee, which is spread through feces. Today, there is 218 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:17,080 Speaker 1: a vaccine for it, and it's usually treatable with antibiotics, 219 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: but that was not true in the eighteen hundreds. So 220 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:23,960 Speaker 1: typhoid is carried in the stools of infected people and 221 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,440 Speaker 1: it's transmitted by contact in one way or another with 222 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:32,960 Speaker 1: those infected stools. So that can mean flies crawling around 223 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:36,559 Speaker 1: on feces and then crawling around on food. It can 224 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 1: also be transmitted when water or milk or are contaminated 225 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: with infected feces, and people can continue to spread it 226 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:50,480 Speaker 1: even after they've recovered allah the infamous typhoid Mary. At 227 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 1: this time, the military had huge sanitation procedures in place 228 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,440 Speaker 1: to try to prevent the spread of typhoid, but many 229 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,320 Speaker 1: of them just weren't effective. They had to do with 230 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,400 Speaker 1: cleanliness and disposal of waste, but it's still spread from 231 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,640 Speaker 1: one infected person to another. Camps would be relocated entirely 232 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:12,960 Speaker 1: for fear of contaminated water sources, although Reid was definitely 233 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: involved in study and trying to come up with plans 234 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:19,080 Speaker 1: for how to prevent the spread of the disease, like 235 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: new latrine designs to try to keep the waste away 236 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: from other things. The primary researchers on it were Victor 237 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: Vaughan and George Sternberg, and unfortunately their work didn't really 238 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:36,600 Speaker 1: get to a satisfactory conclusion. During Red's lifetime. They didn't 239 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:41,000 Speaker 1: manage to wipe out typhoid. It was basically endemic in 240 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:44,480 Speaker 1: the military, and efforts to clean up after it just 241 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: were not enough. In the end, vaccines, which were developed 242 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: not long after the turn of the century, did a 243 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:52,960 Speaker 1: lot more to stop the disease than all of their 244 00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: hygiene efforts, which were just not sufficient. In the end, 245 00:14:57,320 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: he took a much greater lead in the fight again 246 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,840 Speaker 1: yellow fever, and his work with yellow fever wound up 247 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:05,720 Speaker 1: being a lot more effective than the work of the 248 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,440 Speaker 1: team was doing to try to control typhoid. Yellow fever 249 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 1: was a huge problem in Cuba as well as in 250 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 1: parts of the United States. In less tropical parts of 251 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: the world, the disease was fairly seasonal, with huge outbreaks 252 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:22,520 Speaker 1: when the weather was warm. It's a hemorrhagic disease that 253 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: causes fever, joint pain, vomiting, hemorrhaging, bloodshot eyes, and jaundice. 254 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: Yellow fever had two nicknames. One was yellow Jack, which 255 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: obviously was because of the jaundice, and the other one 256 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: and heads Up. This is gross, was the black vomit, 257 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 1: because in the end stages of the disease, people would 258 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,520 Speaker 1: bleed into their digestive systems and then they would throw 259 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: that up, and what they threw up was black because 260 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:51,280 Speaker 1: of the enzymes interacting with the blood. One of the 261 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 1: worst parts of the disease was that the symptoms often 262 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: cleared up after a few days, which made people think 263 00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 1: they were going to survive, but then the symptoms come 264 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: back as the liver failed and the internal hemorrhaging started. 265 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 1: It was absolutely horrifying, and the mortality rate was up 266 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: to The prevailing theory before Walter Reid really got involved 267 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,840 Speaker 1: was that yellow fever was spread by fomites. And if 268 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:18,360 Speaker 1: you've ever played plague, inc You know that these are 269 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:22,320 Speaker 1: external objects that are capable of hanging onto and spreading disease. 270 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: So when Native Americans contracted smallpox after being given blankets 271 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:32,840 Speaker 1: that had been used by smallpox patients, the blankets were fomites. However, 272 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 1: some doctors already thought yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes 273 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:41,320 Speaker 1: before Walter Reid got involved. Cuban doctor Carlos Juan Finlay 274 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 1: had first theorized that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes 275 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 1: as early as eighteen eighty one. He did a hundred 276 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:51,880 Speaker 1: and four different experiments between eighteen eighty one and to 277 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: study the diseases spread. Most of Finlay's subjects were immigrant 278 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,360 Speaker 1: workers who allowed themselves to be bitten by miss eatos 279 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:03,680 Speaker 1: that had bitten yellow fever patients. And it may seem 280 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,000 Speaker 1: kind of weird that people would be okay with this 281 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: exposure without some kind of other incentive to to make 282 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:13,600 Speaker 1: it more enticing, but yellow fever was so widespread that 283 00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,520 Speaker 1: pretty much everybody thought if you were in Havana long enough, 284 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: you would eventually get it. So a lot of people were, like, 285 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 1: I might as well get it over with and actually 286 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 1: have a doctor nearby if it's going to happen to me, 287 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,520 Speaker 1: and like even figured out which specific species he thought 288 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:30,520 Speaker 1: was at risk. This was a common household mosquito that 289 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,840 Speaker 1: the time was called q lex fasciatus, and now it's 290 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 1: called adies agyp die, and I hope I have pronounced 291 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:41,440 Speaker 1: that remotely right. But people did not take him seriously. 292 00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: This was in part because some of his experiments failed. 293 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,800 Speaker 1: He thought the mosquito bite was basically akin to a 294 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,960 Speaker 1: dirty needle. It was taking infected material from one person 295 00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: and putting it into another person. He also thought the 296 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:56,720 Speaker 1: sickest patients were going to be the ones most likely 297 00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: to transmit the disease to the mosquito. So this is 298 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,560 Speaker 1: not actually how yellow fever spreads, and we'll talk about 299 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: that more in a moment, but that meant that, you know, 300 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:10,480 Speaker 1: a lot of his experiments did not result in somebody 301 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,239 Speaker 1: getting yellow fever, and people were sort of like, well, 302 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: you're claiming it's the mosquitoes, but the mosquito, but that guy, 303 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:18,440 Speaker 1: he's not sick, so you don't know what you're talking about. 304 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: Walter Reid, for his part, worked with a team of 305 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:34,640 Speaker 1: other doctors, including Jesse Lizier, Aristides Eggramante, and James Carroll. 306 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:38,240 Speaker 1: They worked not just off of Finlay's mosquito theory, but 307 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: also off of actual mosquito eggs that Finlay had collected. 308 00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:44,879 Speaker 1: He'd figured out that if you dried out mosquito eggs, 309 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:47,879 Speaker 1: they would still hatch and mature with the right temperature 310 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:54,359 Speaker 1: and humidity. So using Finlay's harvested mosquito eggs, uh Read 311 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:57,200 Speaker 1: and his team ran a series of experiments. They hatched 312 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,239 Speaker 1: the mosquitoes from the eggs, and then they allow them 313 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,879 Speaker 1: to bite someone who was infected with yellow fever. This 314 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:06,480 Speaker 1: was an extremely tedious, time consuming process. They would put 315 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: the mosquito in a test tube, then put the test 316 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 1: tube mouth down on somebody's skin, and then like wait 317 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:16,080 Speaker 1: for the mosquito to get to biting. Uh. They'd sort 318 00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:18,119 Speaker 1: of tap the side of the test tube if the 319 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:22,200 Speaker 1: mosquito was just perched on it not really doing anything. 320 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 1: But really, this is like hurting cats. Mosquitoes do not 321 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: feed on people on cue. This reminds me of an 322 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,439 Speaker 1: episode of um Why am I blanking Out? On the 323 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: name of MythBusters. They were trying to get a skunk 324 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 1: to spray them and they just couldn't. It's kind of 325 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 1: like nature doesn't always do what you want in a 326 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 1: lab like yes. Well, and it will also remind people 327 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:49,680 Speaker 1: of the Saw Bones episode about self experimentation because they 328 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 1: talk about this part in in that episode. If you 329 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 1: are a Sawbones fan, uh. And the team approached this 330 00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:58,560 Speaker 1: in a methodical way, as methodical as you can be 331 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:00,399 Speaker 1: well trying to tap on a mosquito to get it 332 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:03,240 Speaker 1: to bite someone, uh, And in a vast departure from 333 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:05,600 Speaker 1: much of the other research that we talked about on 334 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:09,200 Speaker 1: this podcast, they did not use unwilling organs and prisoners 335 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:12,680 Speaker 1: as test subjects. They used volunteers. These people gave their 336 00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 1: consent beforehand, and they were compensated for their participation a 337 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:20,399 Speaker 1: hundred dollars just for participating in another and another hundred 338 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:24,680 Speaker 1: dollars if they actually got sick. Um. This was basically 339 00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:29,439 Speaker 1: revolutionary in the field of medical research. It's probably the 340 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:33,960 Speaker 1: first time that informed consent became a thing in Western 341 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 1: medical study and research. And through these experiments they discovered 342 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,680 Speaker 1: a number of things about yellow fever transmission, including why 343 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:45,159 Speaker 1: some of Finley's experiments failed. It became clear as they 344 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 1: went that mosquitoes could only pick up the virus from 345 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,040 Speaker 1: a sick person's blood two or three days after infection, 346 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,119 Speaker 1: and it took two weeks of for enough of the 347 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:58,080 Speaker 1: virus to reproduce inside the mosquito for someone it bit 348 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,439 Speaker 1: to get sick, So there was an incubation and period 349 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,240 Speaker 1: that had not been accounted for, and after that the 350 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,959 Speaker 1: mosquito could then spread the disease for a couple of months. 351 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: As a side note, this is why mosquitoes don't transmit HIV. 352 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:14,679 Speaker 1: HIV doesn't reproduce inside a mosquito's body. The way yellow 353 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:20,680 Speaker 1: fever does. And this research was overwhelmingly successful, but it 354 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,840 Speaker 1: came at a cost. James Carroll, one of the researchers 355 00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,320 Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier, was infected with yellow fever and he 356 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:30,439 Speaker 1: almost died. And this is reportedly because the mosquito in 357 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,400 Speaker 1: question had not eaten in about three days of them 358 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:37,080 Speaker 1: trying to coax it to bite someone, and they were 359 00:21:37,119 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 1: afraid that if the mosquito starved to death, they were 360 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,679 Speaker 1: going to lose important data. So in sort of an 361 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: act of just desperation, what reportedly happened is that James 362 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:50,840 Speaker 1: Carroll let it bite him. There's this whole other weird 363 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: thing in my head swirling about the idea of trying 364 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,840 Speaker 1: to keep mosquitoes as pets, almost for medical research, and 365 00:21:56,880 --> 00:22:01,040 Speaker 1: it's very strange to think about um. And Jesse Lizier 366 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,280 Speaker 1: was infected with yellow fever and he in fact did die. 367 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: It's unclear whether this was part of an experiment or 368 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:11,360 Speaker 1: if this was an accident. Reports are contradictory. Some say 369 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,600 Speaker 1: that he did infect himself on purpose, and others say 370 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:16,919 Speaker 1: that he was bitten by a mosquito while working and 371 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: thought it was a species that did not carry malaria. Regardless, 372 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:26,240 Speaker 1: his work before his death was absolutely critical to this experiment, 373 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: and he left notebooks full of accurate, detailed data when 374 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:34,119 Speaker 1: he died, and without these notebooks the project probably would 375 00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:37,440 Speaker 1: have failed. It could not have continued without his knowledge. 376 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,119 Speaker 1: Their research did not immediately gain traction. Back in the 377 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: United States, an Italian doctor named Giuseppe Cinerelli had theorized 378 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,399 Speaker 1: that a basilus caused yellow fever, and even after this 379 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:53,639 Speaker 1: was disproved quite conclusively, he continued to insist that his 380 00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:57,320 Speaker 1: basillis be named as the culprit. And this distracted from 381 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: the real problem. Yeah, and when we say conclusively disproved, 382 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 1: it involved things like during autopsies of people who had 383 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:10,360 Speaker 1: definitely died of yellow fever, his bacillus was not present, 384 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:15,560 Speaker 1: and we were like, this is not it. But his 385 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:21,280 Speaker 1: advocacy for his bacillus, which it was called his bacillus um, 386 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: really sidetrack things. Um. However, soon the army instituted mosquito 387 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:32,600 Speaker 1: control programs and yellow fever rates and Havannah plummeted. The 388 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,760 Speaker 1: United States Army was also soon able to get into 389 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: areas where they previously couldn't because yellow fever was just 390 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 1: too entrenched. And basically trying to send troops there would 391 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,240 Speaker 1: have just caused everyone to get sick and die. An 392 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:49,440 Speaker 1: example is that the building of the Panama Canal really 393 00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,800 Speaker 1: couldn't have happened without mosquito control programs to control the 394 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,439 Speaker 1: spread of yellow fever. Reid came back from Cuba in 395 00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: one and he continued to lecture on yellow fever. He 396 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:03,400 Speaker 1: received honorary degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan. 397 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:07,000 Speaker 1: He was named Librarian of the Surgeon General's Library in 398 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:11,480 Speaker 1: November of nineteen o two. Walter Reid died on November 399 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:15,840 Speaker 1: twenty three, nineteen o two, after developing parrotnitis, which followed 400 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:19,160 Speaker 1: a case of appendicitis, and his death came as somewhat 401 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:23,040 Speaker 1: of a shock. At least the illness is severity came 402 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,040 Speaker 1: as a shock. His symptoms just weren't as serious as 403 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: would have been expected for a case of appendicitis that 404 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,120 Speaker 1: was advanced as advanced as his was. So uh when 405 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,880 Speaker 1: he became it became clear that he was critically ill. 406 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,960 Speaker 1: People were really shocked by it. A vaccine for yellow 407 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,359 Speaker 1: fever was developed in the nineteen twenties, and, as we 408 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,600 Speaker 1: noted earlier, while to read Army Medical Center was named 409 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 1: for him and for his work. I knew very little 410 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: of him prior to this, so I'm glad you picked 411 00:24:54,920 --> 00:25:03,639 Speaker 1: this one. Hey so much for joining us on this Saturday. 412 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 1: Since this episode is out of the archive, if you 413 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,240 Speaker 1: heard an email address or Facebook U r L or 414 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 1: something similar over the course of the show, that could 415 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:15,440 Speaker 1: be obsolete now. Our current email address is History Podcast 416 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,200 Speaker 1: at i heart radio dot com. Our old how stuff 417 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,360 Speaker 1: Works email address no longer works, and you can find 418 00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:25,639 Speaker 1: us all over social media at missed in History. And 419 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,520 Speaker 1: you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, 420 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,160 Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen 421 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:37,960 Speaker 1: to podcasts. 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