Figure 1.2.

In 1900, Walter Reed and his colleagues discovered yellow fever virus, the first human virus, and its transmission cycle. This is a famous allegorical painting, entitled Conquerors of Yellow Fever by Dean Cornwell. It depicts Walter Reed (in white uniform) and Carlos Finlay (with white hair) looking on as Jesse Lazear, who died of yellow fever a month later, applies an infected mosquito to the arm of James Carroll. The painting includes Aristides Agramonte (behind Lazear), Leonard Wood (in brown helmet), Jefferson Kean (in white helmet), and several of the volunteers who subsequently were infected in the same way. Carroll became infected as a result of this experiment—he survived, and went on to have a distinguished career as a microbiologist, but suffered from chronic illness leading to an early death, said to be a consequence of his yellow fever infection.

Purchased copy, used with permission.