Letter from Walter Reed to George Miller Sternberg, July 24, 1900 |
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Camp Columbia,
Quemados, Cuba,
July 24th 1900
My dear Gen. Sternberg;
I returned
from Pinar del Rio, on Sunday
evening, where I had gone at
the earnest request of Dr
Stark and Gen. Lee- I suppose
that Stark has already written
you about the stupid blunder
in diagnosis of which God-
frey and his assistants, at
Pinar del Rio Barracks, have
been guilty- It seems bad
enough when medical officers
insist upon confounding
Typhoid fever and malaria;
but when they deliberately,
in spite of symptoms, fail-
ure of quinine, and the
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presence of distinctive Post-
mortem lesions present in
every case, persist in calling
Yellow fever "pernicious
malarial fever", and that, too,
on the Island of Cuba in the
month of June, it about
reaches the sublimest heights
of obtuseness! Agramonte
had already preceded me
and had autopsied one case,
in the presence of these med-
ical officers, and had found
marked fatty degeneration of
liver and fluid blood in stom-
ach & upper Intestine. Notwithstanding this, Godfrey
& A.A. Surg. Presnell, upon
my arrival, had the sublime
impudence to tell me that
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they wished it distinctly
understood that they differed
with Dr Agramonte & still con-
sidered these cases as pernicious
malarial fever! At 3 o'clock,
the afternoon of my arrival,
Agramonte & I autopsied
the Commissary Serg't, who had
died after [a] 3 days illness-
The stomach contained consid-
erable black-vomit material
& the liver was typical--
body fairly well jaundiced-
In the presence of this case,
these gentlemen reluctantly
yielded- I find that the
cases (11 had died) had all
presented unmistakable symp-
toms of yellow fever, except
in the matter of albumen
in the urine, which test
Godfrey had left in the hands
of one of his steward's, who
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was quite incompetent for
the work. Of course it was pres-
ent, but under such a careless
arrangement, was not detec-
ted till during the last days of
life, when any idiot could have
found it- These cases had
been treated in the wards
of the hospital like other
patients, without any particular
disinfection of bed-linen & clothing
except that on the bed, when the
patient died, in the latter case,
sheets & pillow slips went into
bichloride and mattrass was
sponged over with trichloride.
The soldiers bedding & equipment
were left in the barrack room
of course, to be turned into the
company store-room, after
the man's death! At the time of my inspection,
after a careful consideration,
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I concluded that the disease
had been acquired in Pinar
del Rio, the city being very
close to the Barracks, and
that probably both the Quartel,
in which the Infantry were quar-
tered, and the Post Hospital
were infected- Nothing re-
mained but to get the garrison
out as soon as possible.
This was accomplished the
following morning (Sunday)
the troops going into Camp
about 3 miles from the City-
I feel confident that by
strict quarantine, another
week will end the trouble.
I do not know how to char-
acterize Dr Godfrey's con-
duct in the presence of his
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repeated fatalities- His lack
of diagnostic acumen sur-
passes all understanding.
I am of the opinion that
he should never again be
placed in any position
of responsibility- To again
place the lives of officers
and enlisted men in his
keeping, at least on this
Island, would be well
nigh criminal! Our laboratories are now
in good working order-
We have ing been able to
carefully study 7 cases since
our arrival -- of these one
recovered (a severe case) and
six died -- neither during
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life nor after death, have we
been able to isolate b. icteroides,
although our 6th autopsy, which
occurred day before yesterday,
can not be definitely repor-
ted upon as yet- Drs Durham and Meyers
arrived about a week
ago & promptly called on us,
I placed both of the labora-
tories at their service, during
their stay [in Havana] , and we have done
everything to make their visit
a profitable one, by showing
them cases & c- They sail
for New York on saturday
next- I shall return
by transport leaving here
about August 1st -- in order
to finish my other work.
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There is plenty of material
in Havana, with every prob-
ability [for] of its rapid increase-
our last case here died on
Monday -- we will therefore ex-
pect to transfer our field
of work to Military Hospital
No. 1- Lazaer, Carroll and
Agramonte are all deeply
interested in the problem,
Personally, I feel that only
can experimentation
on human beings serve to
clear the field for further
effective work -- with one or
two points cleared up, we
could then work to so much
better advantage. With kindest regards, Sincerely yours,
Walter Reed
. Your check for $100 was received.
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