So with this dreadful experience as an example and a warning, the
American authorities realized that the first work of importance was
that of subduing the unhealthful conditions of the Canal Zone so
that labor might be engaged in with reasonable safety by the tens of
thousands of employees who would be placed upon the line of operations
of the canal when work was actively commenced.
Fortunately, surgeons of the American army had gained a great deal of
experience during the Cuban campaign, and one army surgeon had achieved
particular prominence in his handling of tropical diseases. Dr. W. C.
Gorgas, who had campaigned in Cuba and assisted General Leonard Wood in
the cleaning up and sanitization of Santiago and Havana, was peculiarly
fitted for the important work of establishing healthful conditions on
the Zone.
Dr. Gorgas had also had the advantage of being a collaborator as well
as a fellow officer of Dr. Reed in Cuba. Dr. Reed was one of the first
army surgeons to become familiar with the theory that the yellow fever
and the malarial fevers of the tropics were carried and distributed
through the agency of mosquitoes. In fact, Dr. Reed himself became
a victim to his desire for scientific knowledge, he having allowed
himself to be bitten by a mosquito that had first filled itself with
the virus of a yellow fever patient, and died as the result of the
experiment.