It may be of interest to the reader to learn who these men were and
the reasons why they were probably selected for the work.
Major Reed, the first member in the order of appointment, was the
ranking officer and therefore the chairman of the board. He was a
regular army officer, at the time curator of the Army Medical Museum
in Washington and a bacteriologist of some repute. He deservedly enjoyed
the full confidence of the surgeon general, besides his personal
friendship and regard. Reed was a man of charming personality, honest
and above board. Every one who knew him loved him and confided in
him. A polished gentleman and a scientist of the highest order, he was
peculiarly fitted for the work before him.
Dr. James Carroll, the second member of the board, was a self-made
man, having risen from the ranks through his own efforts: while a member
of the Army Hospital Corps he studied medicine and subsequently
took several courses at Johns Hopkins University in the laboratory
branches. At the time of his appointment to the board he had been
for several years an able assistant to Major Reed. Personally, Carroll
was industrious and of a retiring disposition.
Dr. Jesse W. Lazear was the fourth member of the board. He had
graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia
University) in the same class as the writer, in 1892, and had afterwards
studied abroad and at Johns Hopkins. Lazear had received special
training in the investigation of mosquitoes with reference to malaria
and other diseases. Stationed at Columbia Barracks, he had been in
Cuba several months before the board was convened, in charge of the
hospital laboratory at the camp. A thorough university man, he was the
type of the old southern gentleman, kind, affectionate, dignified, with a
high sense of honor, a staunch friend and a faithful soldier.
The writer was the third member of the Army Board. Born in Cuba
during the ten years' war, while still a child, my father having been
killed in battle against the Spanish, I was taken to the United States
and educated in the public schools and in the College of the City of New
York, graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1892.
At the breaking out of the war I was assistant bacteriologist in the New
York Health Department. The subject of yellow fever research was my
chief object from the outset, and, at the time the board was appointed,
I was in charge of the laboratory of the Division of Cuba, in Havana.
It may be readily seen from the brief sketch regarding the several
members that the components of the yellow-fever board really constituted
a perfectly consistent body, for the reason, mainly, that they were
all men trained in the special field wherein their labors were to be so
fruitful and that before their appointment to the board they had been
more or less associated in scientific work.
